Confronting health disparities in clinical trials

Cancer care is personal for us and in working with patients, world leading academics, industry, regulators, payors and advocacy organizations, we believe we can make a meaningful impact in transforming the lives of people with cancer. As a research-driven pharmaceutical company, one of our priorities is to ensure there’s more representation from underserved communities throughout our entire business, particularly for clinical cancer trials. Our goal is to address the cultural and structural barriers to care that people in minority populations and underserved communities face living with a cancer diagnosis or chronic medical condition.

One way Boehringer Ingelheim is advancing this goal is by partnering with Yale Cancer Center and Patricia M. LoRusso, DO, PhD, FASCO, Chief of Experimental Therapeutics for Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital, to improve access to early-phase clinical cancer trials by reducing health disparities such as lack of transportation, childcare and financial or food insecurity. The Yale Cancer Center Consortium to Advance Equity in Early-Phase Clinical Trials unites health care partners and pharmaceutical companies that are dedicated to helping patients overcome barriers that impact their experience, access and cancer treatment. Through the new consortium, Yale Cancer Center is building a community-based clinical trial research infrastructure to:

• Assess barriers to recruiting underrepresented populations.
• Better understand potential biologic and exposure differences to investigational cancer therapies.
• Bring trials closer to where people live and work (decentralized trial models).
   

This hybrid decentralized clinical trial recruitment model may improve participation and increase access to early phase cancer trials by leveraging digital and in-person engagement in local communities.

We are proud to be part of such a collaborative research network that taps into a diversity of minds, which is vital in addressing some of the most challenging, but potentially most impactful, areas of cancer research. Our generational commitment to driving scientific innovation is further reflected by our robust pipeline of cancer cell-directed and immuno-oncology investigational therapies, as well as the smart combination of these approaches.

Other ways we’re breaking down obstacles for the communities we serve:

• Providing more resources on authentic medications to the Hispanic community, which is too often exposed to counterfeit medical products putting their health at risk and undermining the credibility of healthcare systems and companies.
• Having a greater emphasis on patient-centered care for all by encouraging change in public policy for post-traumatic stress disorder and addressing major gaps in mental health conditions.
• Focusing more on the human-animal bond to help people living with chronic conditions, like COPD or diabetes, offset impacts to their mental and physical health.

Simply put, we are driven by the desire to serve humankind by improving human and animal health today, tomorrow and for generations to come.