The Marketplace Diversity Assessment: Improving Diversity in Clinical Trials

The lack of diversity in clinical trials is a serious problem that’s persisted for decades. Black Americans—who make up 20 percent of US multiple myeloma patients and are twice as likely to be diagnosed—have only accounted for 4.5 percent of participants in multiple myeloma trials since 2003. Asian Americans—who make up nearly 6 percent of the U.S. population—have accounted for less than 2 percent of US-based trials.

The reality is that diverse patient populations have different responses to certain pharmaceuticals, and ignoring this poses a significant community and global health risk.

A critical reason behind this lack of diversity is the inherent difficulty in recruiting enough patients who statistically represent the population that makes up the disease. In addition, sponsors face a number of challenges when trying to recruit diverse patients: it is time consuming to identify sites that serve diverse patients and it is difficult to know if the sites are successful in recruiting diverse patients.

The Inato Marketplace is the first industry marketplace that matches research sites to the right clinical trial protocols, unlocking site potential worldwide. This approach flips the traditional site selection model on its head to democratize clinical trials using a proven, data-driven approach -- giving all sites the opportunity to search and match for trials based on their qualifications, interests and needs. In turn, Inato matches sponsors with experienced clinical sites and research centers who are looking to fill research gaps or expand access to innovative investigational medicines for their patient populations.

This evidence-based diversity assessment allows sponsors to easily match their protocols to sites in the Inato Marketplace with expertise in diversity. Sites complete a 14-point assessment which evaluates three facets of diversity:

1. Community: Ethnic, gender and age make-up; how the site connects and builds trust within the community
2. Research Team: Cultural competency and languages spoken
3. Recruitment and Outreach Approach: Policy and commitment to enrolling diverse patients, strategy to approach targeted populations for clinical trials

This allows sites to showcase their unique capabilities and differentiate themselves from other sites who conduct research in a given indication. Once a site completes the assessment, the Inato team reviews and verifies site self-assessment (requiring concrete evidence to back-up any claims) and awards badges to differentiate diverse sites for sponsors.

Watch a 2-minute video on how the diversity assessment works here.

The methodology used to build the diversity assessment leverages guidance from industry and FDA publications, input from industry leaders in diversity, and deep engagement with sites in the Inato Marketplace.

To learn more about the diversity assessment or to post a trial to the Marketplace, email contact@inato.com.