A new analysis of drug trials used to approve medicines in the United States shows how far modern medicine still has to go to serve everyone fairly. Only 6% of the clinical trials that backed new drugs between 2017 and 2023 had participants whose racial and ethnic makeup looked like the country’s own. At the same time that precision medicine promises care tailored to your genes, the science behind many new drugs still leans on a narrow slice of humanity. The work, led by researchers at UC Riverside and UC Irvine, lands at a tense moment. Hospitals and scientists talk often about equity and inclusion. Yet the data in this study tell you that many people, especially Black and Hispanic patients, still stand at the edge of the evidence. A Snapshot of Who Gets Studied The team examined 341 “pivotal” trials, the large late stage studies that companies submit to the Food and Drug Administration to win approval for new drugs. They focused on four major groups in the United States: Black, Hispanic, Asian and …