Diversifying drug research and inclusion in the workplace − purposefully hiring employees with different ethnic, cultural, and experiential backgrounds and providing a welcoming environment where everyone is valued − has been shown to have a measurable positive impact on the bottom line.
The top quartile of companies for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to outperform their national industry medians in terms of financial returns, while those in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to outperform their national industry medians in terms of financial returns. Furthermore, organizations with inclusive cultures were six times more likely to be inventive and agile, eight times more likely to achieve superior commercial outcomes, and twice as likely to meet or surpass financial targets than those with below-average diversity.
The pharmaceutical and healthcare industries unfortunately have a long way to go before they can legitimately be called diversifying drug research Although people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds make up a growing part of the population in the United States, African Americans, Asians, and Latinos make up fewer than 10%, 14%, and 11% of the pharmaceutical workforce, respectively. 7 According to the National Institutes of Health, diverse patients make up less than 10% of patients enrolling in research studies.
The pharmaceutical industry has less gender and racial diversity than other Fortune 500 companies, according to a study published in 2016. 8 Only 8% of board seats were held by ethnically diversifying drug research directors, compared to 14 percent for the Fortune 500 generally, and around one-third of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies had no women on their boards. In executive committees (ExCos), the numbers are significantly lower, with no women on 19 of the top 50 businesses’ Excos.
Another way to look at the gender gap is to compare the amount of women in the healthcare workforce — 65 percent, which is higher than the percentage of women in tech (26 percent) and financial services (46 percent) — with the percentage of women on leadership teams, which is just 25 percent. Only one female CEO (Emma Walmsley, GlaxoSmithKline) is among the top ten pharmaceutical businesses in terms of revenue.
In the healthcare industry, there is also a scarcity of diversity. Minorities hold only 9% of CEO positions in hospitals and health systems, the second lowest percentage of all C-suite jobs. Despite the fact that women make up 80% of the workforce, just 4% of healthcare organizations are led by women, and only a few women hold key executive roles.
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