Pregnant Women Won't Take Part in Clinical Trials

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There is ten this grim irony that sort of an order to protect women, they've been excluded from these clinical trials. And that very act has put them more at risk because of not having availability to new medicines and not knowing whether existing medicines are safe for them to use. But do we know if pregnant women actually want to take part in clinical trials, or is there a lot of caution on that side that is actually an issue as well? So i think it depends on the nature of the clinical trial.

A recent report on the exclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women in clinical trials found that both women and babies in the UK are “dying needlessly” from a lack of suitable medications. Over the past 40 years, only two new medicines have been approved for use in pregnancy, leaving patients to weigh up unknown risks and make difficult decisions about their own health and that of their babies. Science editor Ian Sample talks to Peter Brocklehurst, professor of women’s health at the University of Birmingham, about why pregnant women are so often excluded from pharmaceutical research and how we can make sure they too benefit from modern medicine. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod