Un­der pres­sure, Bio­gen out­lines am­bi­tious di­ver­si­ty goals for Aduhelm study — but the Medicare fight is still on

Bio­gen, fac­ing re­newed crit­i­cism for a lack of di­ver­si­ty in its Alzheimer’s clin­i­cal tri­als, an­nounced on Thurs­day a new com­mit­ment: At least 18% of the par­tic­i­pants in the FDA-man­dat­ed con­fir­ma­to­ry study for its con­tro­ver­sial drug Aduhelm will be Black or Lat­inx.

The promise comes af­ter decades in which Black and Lat­inx Amer­i­cans were chron­i­cal­ly un­der­rep­re­sent­ed in tri­als for the mem­o­ry-wast­ing dis­ease, de­spite be­ing up to twice as like­ly to have it. And it comes just weeks af­ter the com­pa­ny was specif­i­cal­ly told by CMS to in­clude these groups in an­oth­er clin­i­cal tri­al be­fore in­sur­ers pay for Aduhelm.

Endpoints News

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.