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Patients as Partners in Developing New Medicines
With a growing emphasis on patient-reported outcomes, study volunteers are becoming active participants in evaluating a treatment’s efficacy. Since the first reported controlled clinical trial in 1747, when Scottish surgeon James Lind studied how eating oranges and lemons can cure scurvy among sailors at sea, patients have always been essential to expanding medical knowledge and developing new therapies. After all, no one knows your body like you do. But for the most part, patients have...
How the Placebo Effect Can Cloud Clinical Trial Results
When researchers design a clinical trial, they can’t ignore the powerful—and often bizarre—placebo effect. Since ancient times, healers have known the power of the mind-body connection — specifically, the mind’s ability to influence how the body feels. This influence can at times be so strong that the treatment doesn’t even have to be “real” for the patient’s symptoms to subside. This is the placebo effect, and it’s a very real phenomenon, both in the lab and in the doctor’s office. In...
How a Former Neuroscience Researcher Is on a Mission to Close the Diversity Gap in Clinical Trials (Q&A)
When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently gave a presentation on diversity in clinical trials, Dr. Ricardo Rojo wasn’t surprised to hear that — at least for medicines where gender is not overtly relevant — research participants today are predominantly white men. Rojo, Pfizer’s first Global Lead for Diversity in Clinical Trials, is on a mission to change this. For years, the FDA, the pharmaceutical industry and various stakeholders have been working to improve racial, ethnic...
When Diversity Means Better Medicine
By tapping into more diverse genomes, researchers are gaining novel insights into disease and drug safety. For a variety of historical and logistical reasons, the vast majority of genomics research, to date, has been done in European populations. A 2016 analysis in the journal Nature found that 81 percent of participants in genetic research are of European ancestry. But in recent years scientists are pushing to expand research into more diverse groups to gain broader insights into the...
Consumer DNA Kits Give Research a Boost
At-home DNA tests are driving patient participation in research. DNA kits can trace more than your ancestry. They’re also helping medical research. Patients with lupus and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) recently became a pivotal part of studies without ever stepping foot in a clinic or hospital, thanks to a collaboration formed between Pfizer and the genetic testing company 23andMe. The mission: find genetic clues that may someday lead to more precise treatments. The method: mail in...
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