Endocrine Society
March 19, 2009

On February 27, the Society submitted comments and its white paper “Increasing Minority Participation in Clinical Research” in response to a request for feedback from the FDA on participation of certain population subsets in clinical drug trials.  In the cover letter, Society President Robert M. Carey, MD, highlighted recommendations specific to FDA and stated that many of the recommended approaches could be adapted to other underrepresented population subsets.  The comments posted to the FDA website and became part of the public record on March 6.

The white paper resulted from an effort spearheaded by Dr. Maria Alexander-Bridges and the Government Relations Committee (now APOCC).  In support of its advocacy agenda, in 2006 The Endocrine Society received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the white paper was published in December 2007. 

The Society uses the white paper as the basis for many of its advocacy efforts in support of eliminating health disparities.  For more information on the Society’s initiatives in this area, please visit the Society’s website at http://www.endo-society.org/advocacy/health_disparities/index.cfm.