Welcome back to the Virtual Australian Health & Human Capital Economics Seminar Series, which goes into its second year. This event is organised by A/Professor Victoria Baranov (UMelb), Dr Sarah Walker (UNSW), Professor Stefanie Schurer (USyd), Dr Rebecca McKibbin (USyd), Professor Adeline Delavande (UTS), and Professor Brenda Gannon (UQ).

The seminar series is open to the public. Sign up HERE for mailing list.

Representation and Legitimacy: Evidence from Clinical Trials

Presented by

Professor Marcella Alsan

(Harvard University)

Wednesday 7 September

9.00am – 10.00am

Zoom Link

Abstract: Does lack of representation in the innovative process affect views on the value of product innovations — i.e., the technology’s legitimacy? We test this hypothesis in the setting of clinical trials. Pharmaceutical firms naturally choose the most expeditious ways of meeting regulatory requirements, including accruing a rapidly recruitable sample of patients to clinical trials. In practice, this “business as usual” approach routinely results in low enrollment of Black patients for U.S. drug approval. In this paper, we investigate why racial under-representation persists and  the consequences of this for the perceived legitimacy of clinical trial findings among physicians and patients. Results from our two survey experiments — one for patients and one for physicians — suggest that clinical trial evidence generated from representative samples is valued over and above the safety and efficacy of the drug itself. These results are driven by Black patients and the physicians who care for them.