An analysis conducted by the HIV Vaccine Trials Network (HVTN) observed an overall increase in the proportion of racial and ethnic minorities enrolled in Phase 1 and Phase 2A preventive HIV vaccine clinical trials in the United States between 2002 and 2016 compared to 1988 to 2002. The findings were published on December 5, 2018 in Public Health Reports.
Among the 3,469 study participants enrolled from 2002 to 2016, 33 percent identified as a racial and/or ethnic minority compared with 17 percent among 3,731 participants enrolled during the period 1988 to 2002, a two-fold increase overall.
“We are making significant improvements in engaging, recruiting and retaining racial and ethnic minority participants,” said Michele Andrasik, Ph.D., Director of Social Behavioral Sciences and Community Engagement, HVTN and Senior Staff Scientist in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, and an Affiliate Assistant Professor at the University of Washington. “Despite the progress, we still have a long way to go, especially with our efforts in the South, which has the highest rates of new HIV infections in the United States.”