01 Jul Actionable Diversity Plans for Clinical Trial Recruitment and Retention

By Amanda Bishop, ACRP

Diversity action plans—focused on enrolling representative numbers of participants in clinical trials from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic populations—are part of U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) draft guidance published in April 2022.{1} “Sponsors, such as Merck, are focused on developing strategies for actionable diversity plans,” says Amanda Bishop, Associate Director, Clinical Trial Diversity Program Lead, at Merck, known as MSD outside the U.S. and Canada. “This is an important part of our commitment to diversity, and to enrolling a diverse body of participants in our clinical trials.”

In her ACRP 2024 presentation on “Diversity Action Plans: Moving from Intentions to Actions” in May at Anaheim, Calif., Bishop described a blueprint for building a diversity action plan, which includes the following key elements as set forth in FDA’s draft guidance. Read more…