Even though diabetes rates are almost twice as high in black people as in whites, black patients may be far less likely to be included in drug safety trials, a recent study suggests.
Since 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has required that new glucose-lowering medications for diabetes be tested for cardiovascular safety, which may differ based on patients’ race or ethnicity, researchers note in The Lancet Diabetes and Endocrinology.
When researchers looked at seven diabetes drug trials done since then to test cardiovascular safety, they found that in five of the trials, black people made up less than 5 percent of the patients.
