Cross-Consortia Diversity Collaboration Landscape Assessment Launches

Establishing or growing a Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) effort can be a daunting task, especially for smaller biopharma companies and organizations that may have a small or non-existent D&I department.

However, this isn’t a topic that should be neglected. Even small changes implemented can have a lasting effect throughout the R&D ecosystem.

Last year, TransCelerate Board of Directors member Kate Owen authored a blog post on “Seven Ways to Diversify Patient Populations in Clinical Trials” and stressed the necessity of organizations putting into place an actionable plan. One of her main messaging points was how these changes take time, much like the process of discovering and developing a new medicine or therapeutic.

TransCelerate recently hosted a Clinical Research Diversity Collaboration Hub among nine R&D consortia to:

1. Improve transparency and generate insights about efforts to increase diversity in clinical trials
2. Identify opportunities for collaboration to enhance ongoing actions and address underserved areas needed to improve diversity in clinical trials
3. Inform the development of actionable takeaways and materials to support implementation of solutions to increase diversity in clinical trials

As a result of this meeting, TransCelerate’s Diversity of Participants in Clinical Trials Initiative just published its “Diversity Roundtable Reference Table and Visual Landscape of Available Resources” to help equip sponsors and ecosystem stakeholders with the actionable tools and resources needed to improve outcomes in this area. The landscape also indicates resources that serve overlapping stakeholder communities.

Available resources across the various consortia include studies, webinars, research, and full toolkits. To download the full 15-page report, visit the Diversity of Participants in Clinical Trials’ solutions page.

We would like to thank the organizations that attended and participated in the Round Table event: The Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO), BIO, the Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP), PhRMA, Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI), the National Minority Quality Forum (NMQF), Multi-Regional Clinical Trials of Brigham and Women’s Hospital of Harvard (MRCT), and the Society for Clinical Research Sites (SCRS).

About the authors:

Adrelia Allen is the Director of Clinical Trial Patient Diversity at Merck. Adrelia leads a team of clinical trial operations experts focused on promoting the inclusion of diverse patients in the conduct of our clinical trials. She is responsible for leading efforts to develop and implement processes,  resources, and training to help drive inclusion and access across our programs with our clinical trial sites.

Adrelia is a 23-year veteran of the pharmaceutical industry working in sales and clinical research at Merck. She has held positions of increasing experience as a Clinical Research Associate, Clinical Trial Project Manager, and Clinical Research Manager. 

Adrelia earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the College of Pharmacy at Florida A&M University. She is a Registered Pharmacist and a certified Project Management Professional. 

Petrina C. Wall is employed at UCB Biosciences, Inc. where she worked her way up from working at the front desk to her current role as Clinical Project Management Team Lead. She is inspired to help others take their careers and themselves to unprecedented levels. Petrina graduated from North Carolina State University with her bachelor’s degree in Business Management with a minor in Computer Science. After working at UCB Biosciences, Inc. for a year and a half, she completed a two-year Clinical Trial Research Associate program at Durham Technical Community College with honors and received her I & II certifications.

In Petrina’s spare time, she enjoys reading, traveling, and spending quality time with her husband, three sons, and friends.