Johnson & Johnson Blood Cancer Leader Brewer Lays Out Strategy To Break the Cycle and Improve Diversity In Clinical Trials

Clinical Trials Offer Hope for Patients But More Diversity Is Needed

• Tyrone Brewer, President of U.S. Hematology at Johnson & Johnson, acknowledges the healthcare industry’s struggle with diversifying clinical trials. However, he’s helping lead the charge in reversing this trend, instilling hope and optimism for a more inclusive future in healthcare research.
• Clinical trials help doctors discover more effective treatment methods. They also allow patients to try a treatment before it’s approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which can potentially be life-changing.
• Brewer tells SurvivorNet that Johnson & Johnson is among the first companies to submit a diversity plan to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding its clinical trials, as most are overwhelmingly filled with white participants.
• SurvivorNet offers a user-friendly Clinical Trial Finder for those seeking to participate in a clinical trial. This tool empowers you to take control of your healthcare journey, providing you with the information you need to make informed decisions.

For far too long, diversifying participants in medical studies and clinical trials has plagued healthcare research. SurvivorNet spoke with Tyrone Brewer, President of U.S. Hematology at Johnson & Johnson, who says, “This was an area where we were not doing as well” but is trying to correct course. “One area we are now putting a lot of focus on is diversity and clinical trials. As an organization, we have made significant investments here,” Brewer told SurvivorNet. WATCH: Clinical trials can be life-saving. Clinical trials help doctors discover more effective treatment methods. They also allow patients to try a treatment before it’s approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which can potentially be life-changing. The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) says that Black Americans are “under-represented in cancer clinical trials,” which can limit our understanding of therapeutic response to Black populations. Black patients account for only 5% of participants in clinical trials in the U.S., according to research published in JAMA Network Open.

Efforts to Improve Diversity In Clinical Trials, Making Them More Inclusive

Brewer points to Johnson & Johnson’s efforts to reverse the long-standing trend. “We have made significant investments [around diversity and clinical trials]…we were one of the first companies to submit a diversity plan to the FDA around our clinical trials. We recognize the need that a clinical trial needs to represent the population in which it’s going to be used and treated,” Brewer explained. Pew Research surveyed diverse Americans in 2021 on their views of clinical trials. It found that 59% of Black Americans and 58% of Hispanic/Latin American adults considered clinical trials “very important.” Black and Hispanic participants claimed a desire to help others was among the leading reasons to support clinical trials.

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WATCH: How a Clinical Trial Might Improve Your Outlook However, they also worried about potential health risks that clinical trials presented, most notably using treatments that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had not yet approved. There also existed a contingent of people expressing great skepticism of clinical trials by citing historical racial mistreatment of Black and brown people, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study . Brewer says one of Johnson & Johnson’s initiatives, “Research Includes Me,” uses a wide range of demographic data to create more inclusive clinical trials. “We have a study called LIBERTAS , where we took away gender. So, instead of our protocol actually being specific to gender, we realized that we have now deselected a portion of the population with just that one sentence. But by removing it, we’ve now created a more inclusive trial. So, these are the things that we're going to continue to pay attention to as an organization,” Brewer explained.