Breaking down barriers and building a more inclusive tomorrow, together.
Breaking down barriers and building a more inclusive tomorrow, together.
Diversity in Clinical Trials
Our Mission and Vision
Mission: to design our clinical trials to be inclusive and more representative of the populations who are most likely to benefit from our medicines.
Vision: we envision a future where inclusivity is at the forefront of clinical trial design. We want everyone who wants to participate in clinical research to have an equitable opportunity.
Why D&I is clinical trials is important
Diversity in clinical trials is vital for advancing health equity and understanding how medicines work for different groups of people. However, according to FDA reporting from 2022, whites comprised the majority of patients enrolled in most of the pivotal trials supporting approval of all 37 novel therapies, followed by Asians and Blacks1.
Diversity in clinical trials means that the individuals included on a clinical trial match the disease burden within a given geography.
Diversity in clinical trials is a global challenge and exist along the many dimensions of diversity including gender, age, ability, racial and ethnic minorities, sex and gender minorities, geography, socioeconomic status, and so forth. At Sanofi, to solve a global problem, we are developing strategies at the local level based on regional requirements.
Our Six Strategic Pillars
There are many reasons why an individual may not participate in a clinical trial, including mistrust of the healthcare system, stigma, lack of access to information, financial and time constrains and fear. Structural barriers like socioeconomic status, narrow eligibility criteria and forms of unconscious bias may also exclude patients from participating. To address those barriers, we are developing local solutions tailored to each geography´s specific needs which are reinforced by our six strategic pillars:
- Awareness and engagement: internal/external engagement strategy that includes community organizations, partnerships and thought leaders.
- Inclusive protocol design: leveraging data, artificial intelligence and machine learning to ensure our protocol are inclusive.
- Site and Investigator selection: establish a framework to ensure our site selection and investigator selection strategy are aligned with improved diverse population.
- Patient and site support: offering patient and site support to minimize barriers.
- Training: internal and external training focused on health equity, diversity and inclusion in clinical trials
- Measurements: continuously evaluating our performance and metrics.
Global Goals
100%
of Sanofi studies inclusive by design
100%
of Sanofi studies informed by patient insights
Our Impact
Embedding Cultural Sensitivity Into Care
At Sanofi, we’ve embedded cultural sensitivity into our DNA. It is a core value that shapes our approach to compassionate care. Through these stories, we invite all who care for and communicate with patients to become more aware of their biases and preconceived notions. The goal of the Cultural Sensitivity Video Series is to inspire all members of the clinical research ecosystem to consider how they interact with study patients and the potential impact on the patient experience and health outcomes.
Embedding Cultural Sensitivity into Care: Continued
Reflections
Many underrepresented communities may not realize their lack of representation in research. Our goal is to help them understand this underrepresentation and its impact on the safety and efficacy of new drugs for their populations. Reflections will engage these communities to raise awareness, demonstrate a commitment to health equity, inspire advocacy, and address participation barriers.
Sanofi has co-founded and co-leads a grassroots collective of over 30 patient advocacy experts, medicine development sponsors, advocacy groups, clinical trial sites, community partners, and communication specialists. This collective is establishing a long-term program to create sustainable solutions for increasing diversity in clinical trials. Atlanta is the first community to participate, and the insights gained will inform future expansions. The program combines art and education to foster community conversations about the importance of diversity and provides a centralized platform to help individuals find and participate in clinical research.
Beacon of Hope Annual Convening Recap - 2023Beacon of Hope
We are reimagining our partnership model with community-facing sites by focusing on early investment and addressing access barriers well before clinical trials begin. Our strategy involves investing in resources, technology, and infrastructure to facilitate research at these sites. To enhance diverse representation in clinical studies, we have partnered with three Historically Black Medical Schools—Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, and Morehouse School of Medicine. Over the next decade, we will invest in strengthening these institutions' Centers of Excellence in clinical research. Learn more and see our press release: Sanofi commits $18 million to Howard University College of Medicine, Meharry Medical College, and Morehouse School of Medicine to increase diversity in clinical studies - Oct 16, 2024
RE@DI
Sanofi is currently one of the members of the RE@DI – Research Europe & Diversity Inclusion, which is a strong public-private, interdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder partnership, with key expertise in clinical trials, engagement strategies for underserved and underrepresented population, digital platform development, training and capability building initiatives, effective communication and dissemination, to rally a sustainable system to change and make clinical trials accessible to the diverse patient population in Europe.
Sanofi Community Alliance Network
The Sanofi Community Alliance Network is a coalition of clinical research sites, local community organizations, trusted messengers, key opinion leaders, and vendors that partner with Sanofi to increase clinical trial awareness and education through-boots-on-the-ground community engagement; and to advance the representation of diverse patients on our clinical trials.
Effective community engagement has the potential to accelerate patient recruitment, improve site operational excellence and performance, and attract diverse patient populations to clinical trials. An integrated and intentional approach to activate sponsor, site, patient, and community will help to meet the needs of patients, by providing necessary support to sites and underserved communities.
Patient Stor(ies)
Video series produced for TriNetx by BBC StoryWorks Commercial featuring our Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion in Clinical Trials, Monique Adams, Ph.D, stressing the importance of designing inclusive clinical studies and how Sanofi is leveraging technology and harnessing data
We think global and act local. We are actively listening to site and patient feedback and pushing the boundaries of technology to achieve our diversity and inclusion goals, while providing transparency in everything we do.
Monique Adams, PhD
Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion in Clinical Trials
Explore more
Clinical Trials
Find a clinical trial
Interview with Dietmar Berger, CMO
References
- US Food & Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Drug Trials Snapshots Report 2022