Health experts call for more clinical trials to focus on new treatments for women

Health experts are calling for more clinical trials to focus on finding new treatments for women as data reveals they are severely underrepresented, with 67% more male-only studies than female-only projects.

- Andrew Gregory

Details of thousands of studies were collected by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and the University of Liverpool. The evidence shows the UK is a hub for pioneering research, with treatments such as gene therapies becoming a new growth area.

But a review of the data by the Guardian found women were significantly underrepresented. Both sexes were included in most trials (90%), but male-only trials (6.1%) were nearly twice as common as female-only studies (3.7%). Pregnant and breastfeeding women were especially underrepresented - involved in just 1.1% and 0.6% of trials respectively.

Women's health experts expressed alarm over the figures, which they said meant women and their doctors were having to make decisions about whether to take a drug in a "vacuum of evidence". Some areas of research were dominated by men at all levels - funders, researchers, consultants and patients - and as a result there could be a "reluctance" to fund female-only trials, the experts added.