10 Jul Are restrictive LGBTQ+ bills in the US impacting inclusion in clinical trials?

More restrictive LGBTQ+ bills are being passed in the US that might negatively impact transgender individuals in clinical trials.

By Abigail Beaney and Irena Maragkou, Clinical Trials Arena

More bills that restrict the LGBTQ+ community were passed in the US in 2022. Some of these bills make gender-affirming medications illegal, while others ban those in the transgender community from using bathrooms that assign to their gender identity. Erasure bills prohibit LGBTQ+ individuals from bringing claims of discrimination in several areas, including healthcare. Some bills allow doctors to refuse an individual treatment if it goes against their beliefs. Inclusion for the community has already been a talking point in the clinical trial landscape, but will these bills make it even more difficult to promote inclusion?

Contract research organisation (CRO) Parexel published a paper in May 2023, investigating the inclusion of the community in clinical trials. One employee who worked on the paper was Liam Paschall. He is a senior consultant in management development and a transgender male living in the US, which allowed him to provide insight from a patient’s perspective. He worked on the paper alongside colleagues, including the vice president of patient engagement services, Rosamund Round. “The study population should mirror the patient population so that we are testing it in those people that are ultimately going to be taking the medications,” Round explains. “That is what we are striving for.” Read more …