Data on effects on men and women lost in rush to fight Covid-19, says expert
Research into Covid-19 is failing to properly account for differences in how the disease hits different sexes, according to an EU expert on the issue.
The need for data that separates men from women in clinical trials has long been urged by many medical experts. In extreme cases, failing to do this may mean side effects or benefits that affect just women or men are missed.
But the urgent pace of pandemic research seems to have meant that drug developers put less priority on working out how sexes respond to potential treatments, says Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, a member of the European Commission’s expert group on gendered innovations.
“I think the approach here is what unfortunately happens in an emergency—we’re trying to go as fast as possible and looking into sex differences is perceived as something that is just going to cost us time,” said Oertelt-Prigione in a 6 August interview with the EU research magazine Horizon.
The first dozen or so publications on Covid-19 treatments, including clinical trials on the drugs hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir, do not include disaggregated analysis by sex, she pointed out.