Dr. Jill A. Fisher of the UNC Center for Bioethics and the UNC Department of Social Medicine will speak on how social inequalities are exacerbated during the U.S. drug approval process.
As part of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School’s 2021-2022 Lecture Series on Race and Regulation, Dr. Jill A. Fisher, Professor of Social Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine, will present “How Race and Social Inequalities Influence Healthy People’s Paid Participation in FDA-Required Clinical Trials” on Tuesday, December 7, 2021 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET via Zoom.
Drawing on research from her award-winning book, Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals, Fisher will explore in this lecture how healthy volunteers’ decisions to take part in Phase I clinical trials often are influenced by larger social contexts of economic insecurity and racial discrimination that make clinical trial participation an attractive financial opportunity. Indeed, Fisher finds that Phase I clinical trials include an overrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities who often enroll serially to stay financially afloat or to try to get ahead.
The author of three books and over 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, Fisher is a core faculty member of the UNC Center for Bioethics. She is also the recipient of approximately $4.9 million in funding as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
The lecture is free and open to the public. Register for the event here.