Eliminating Gender Bias in Healthcare: Organ-on-a-Chip

Source: The Guardian

Drug development and preclinical/clinical research have traditionally focused more on the male physiology and less on the female one. For example, more men are enrolled in clinical trials than women are and more male animals are used in biomedical research. This can be seen when looking at Figure 1.

Figure 1. Percentage of female and male animals used in different research fields in 2009. Source: NCBI

While such bias in research may not seem relevant for drug development, it actually leads to results that are strongly biased towards half of the world’s population. In extreme cases, the outcome of this bias leads to drugs that are either ineffective or — worse— toxic for women. Each failed clinical trial costs several million dollars to pharmaceutical companies and research institutes.

Additionally, according to PETA, 90% of animal approved clinical trials fail in humans, which only results in more unnecessary lost money. What if we could test drugs without using animals? Or create clinical trials that aren’t biased towards the male physiology?

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