The Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation (BMSF) https://bms.com and National Medical Fellowships https://nmfonline.org have announced a $100 million partnership aimed at improving diversity in Clinical Trials. The Partnership will work to extend the reach of Clinical Trials into underserved patient populations in U.S. urban and rural communities.
FDA reports that about 80% of patients taking part in clinical trials in the U.S are white, while Black Americans who account for 13% of the U.S. population, comprise about 7% of clinical trial participants.
According to Robert Winn, Director of the Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University https://massey.vcu.edu, “While patient response to medical therapies may differ across racial and ethnic subgroups, clinical trials often fail to represent the demographic diversity of the populations that these products aim to serve.”
John Damonti, President, BMSF, said, “Science demonstrates that we must diversify clinical trials in order to improve health outcomes and advance health equity. BMSF and National Medical Fellowships will tap the often overlooked but powerful resource of racially and ethnically diverse physicians or other physicians who have demonstrated commitment to increasing diversity in clinical trials by working in academic medical centers, community based practices, and FQHCs.
To help address the disparity, the program will collaborate with communities to facilitate an approach to clinical and translations research that is community informed, designed, and conducted. The program will also provide sponsorship, support, and tools that emerging investigators need to conduct clinical trial that will lead to new treatments that are effective in all populations.
The Program will train and develop 250 new clinical investigators who are racially and ethnically diverse who have demonstrated commitment to increasing diversity in clinical trials and then expose the 250 promising underrepresented minority medical students to clinical research career pathways. The program will assist investigators in building capacity and standing up new clinical trials sites in communities with diverse and heavily burdened patient populations.
Applications will open January 2021 for the program. Eligible candidates include MD, MD/PHD, DO or DO/PHD and have an interest in clinical research in the areas of cancer (hematology and oncology), cardiovascular disease, and immunologic disorders.
In addition, applicants must reflect the definition of Early Stage Investigator and the NIH definition of underrepresented populations in the U.S., biomedical, clinical behavioral and social sciences research enterprise, or have a demonstrated commitment to increasing diversity in clinical trials.
Email DCTCDPomfp@nmfonline.org for more information.