'Part of re­cov­ery is aware­ness': Pan­dem­ic casts harsh spot­light on in­dus­try-wide lack of di­ver­si­ty in clin­i­cal tri­als

Mod­er­na emerged as an ear­ly leader in the race for a vac­cine to stop Covid-19 in its tracks. The Cam­bridge, Mass­a­chu­setts-based biotech bound­ed through de­vel­op­ment of one of the world’s first mR­NA vac­cines, but in Sep­tem­ber — when the pan­dem­ic was claim­ing up­wards of 700 lives a day in the US — they took a step back.

The com­pa­ny did some­thing not many (if any) biotechs have ever done: At the urg­ing of the US gov­ern­ment, they slowed Phase III en­roll­ment to re­cruit more par­tic­i­pants from mi­nor­i­ty groups.

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