Big Pharma cancer drugmakers back new trial diversity drive from American Lung Association

While lung cancer survival rates have been going up in recent years, there’s an uneven benefit, with Black Americans much less likely to be diagnosed at an early stage.

Not only are Black Americans less likely to get that crucial early diagnosis, they're also less likely to receive any treatment, including surgical intervention, when compared with white Americans.

To help redress this imbalance, the American Lung Association (ALA) and Big Pharma backers are expanding their work through the Awareness, Trust and Action program designed to boost awareness among Black Americans specifically about lung cancer drug clinical trials and “encourage them to speak with their healthcare provider about their treatment options,” according to a press release.

This project is being both supported and “provided in part” by Daiichi Sankyo, Genentech, Merck, Novartis and Novocure, all of which have drugs either on the market or in trials for certain forms of lung cancer.

“We are facing an issue in cancer care in this country. Black Americans are underrepresented in clinical research, so I am working with the American Lung Association to fix that,” said Danielle Mitchell, founder and CEO of Black Women in Clinical Research, in the release.

“I started my career as a clinical research coordinator because my grandmother had cancer. I saw the lack of diversity in clinical trials, and I have set out to change that because representation matters.”

One of the core reasons for this imbalance is, according to the ALA, a “long-standing history of racial bias in healthcare, which impacts access to care and trust in providers.”

The trial diversity drive comes just two months after a new report by IQVIA found that clinical trial diversity in 2022 fell to its lowest level in 10 years. That report found that on average, Black and Hispanic patient inclusion in mid- and late-stage clinical trials declined over the past decade without ever meeting levels proportional with national demographics.

Black participant inclusion, meanwhile, plummeted over four years, with 81% of the U.S. Census demographic levels represented in clinical trials in 2018 compared to 43% in 2022.