Drugmaker Moves To Include People With Disabilities In Clinical Trials

People with disabilities are the largest minority and underrepresented population in the world. Often they are not part of studies due to exclusion criteria. For example, people with chromosomal disorder were excluded from participating in trial for the new Alzheimer drug, even though the risk of this disease is more than 90% for Down syndrome population. However, this proposal from Center for Medicare and Medicaid was eventually removed, and Down syndrome was included.

One of the biggest pharmaceutical company, Bristol Myers Squibb is working with Disability Solutions, a nonprofit to include people with disabilities in clinical trials and research. This will broaden the scope of new treatments or medicines which can be “life-changing and life-saving” for people with disabilities. This way all patients are mirrored as a world population for disease study. The company calls as Disability Diversity in Clinical Trials (DDiCT) making an effort to increase inclusion and diversity.