S3-E12.3 - The Need: Enrich Black America's NASH Clinical Trials Share

Send us Fan MailWith so many major clinical trials for Fatty Liver drugs recruiting over the next couple of years, we have an opportunity to study effects on Black Americans from inception, instead of assuming these drugs work the same in different racial groups only to find, some years later, that we were wrong.This conversation explores historical reasons for underrepresentation and shares possible reasons or steps to remedy this issue in a timely fashion. It starts with Ani Kardashian echoing points that other panelists made earlier in the episode about the need to enrich clinical trials with larger shares of non-Hispanic Black patients so that we can learn about how the disease is different in this group than in other sub-populations. In response to a question from Roger Green, Donna Cryer traces a chain of actions to address the issue: corporate drug developers ask their CROs how to ensure large enough representation in the sample. CROs reach out to community groups that have credibility with community leaders and members to recruit. "People who look like me" take researchers into their communities to certify the researchers' credibility. Louise Campbell confirms this vision by discussing research with Aborigines in Australia. The rest of the conversation centers around three topics: (i) the role International NASH Day can play in providing education on this issue, (ii) the challenges that occur because front-line physicians in hospitals with large proportions of non-Hispanic black patients do not screen patients for Fatty Liver, and (iii) challenges, opportunities and strategies involved in attempting to screen patients for Fatty Liver when they visit hospitals and clinics for other diseases.