Despite Higher Rates Of Diabetes, Black Patients Are Rarely Included In Drug Trials

(Reuters Health) - Even though diabetes rates are almost twice as high in black people as in whites, black patients may be far less likely to be included in drug safety trials, a recent study suggests. Since 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has required that new glucose-lowering medications for diabetes be tested for cardiovascular safety, which may differ based on patients’ race or ethnicity, researchers note in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology. When researchers looked at seven diabetes drug trials done since then to test cardiovascular safety, they found that in five of the trials, black people made up less than 5 percent of the patients. “In the United States the burden of diabetes and the serious complications associated with it fall unfairly on minorities, particularly African Americans, yet it appears that they are under-represented in clinical trials of new therapies and devices,” said study co-author Dr. David Kerr of the William Sansum Diabetes Center in Santa Barbara, California. “If they are excluded they may be exposed to therapies which may not work or could cause harm,” Kerr added by email. “The therapies are also likely to be expensive and ineffective.” About 13 percent of black people in the U.S. have diabetes, compared with 7.6 percent of white Americans. Death rates from cardiovascular disease are also disproportionately high among black Americans, the researchers point out. When it comes to drug effe...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news