MONDAY, April 30 (HealthDay News) -- Children are more likely
than adults to suffer from a number of diseases, but few clinical
trials are conducted to test new drugs in children with these
conditions, researchers have found.
In a new study, researchers looked at all clinical trials
registered worldwide from 2006 to 2011 for drugs to treat these
common conditions: asthma, migraine headaches, schizophrenia,
depression, diarrheal illness, lower respiratory infection,
malaria, bipolar disorder and HIV/AIDS.
While children account for 60 percent of the patients with these
conditions, only 12 percent of the clinical drug trials involved
children, the investigators found. The gap was widest for
conditions that are widespread in low- and middle-income
countries.
Clinical drug trials in children are important because
youngsters often respond differently to medications than adults,
the study authors pointed out in an American Academy of Pediatrics
news release.
"We found that there is a large discrepancy between global disease burden in children and the amount of clinical trial research devoted to this population," Dr. Florence Bourgeois, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, said in the news release.
Lack of funding may be a major reason why there are so few
clinical drug trials involving children, she noted.
"We found that 58.6 percent of pediatric drug trials were conducted without any industry funding, relying solely on nonprofit organizations. In contrast, the majority of adult drug trials (64.7 percent) received industry funding," Bourgeois said.
She said additional programs and incentives are needed to
increase the number of drugs tested in children.
"It is critical that drugs are studied that are most likely to benefit children, particularly children in developing countries who appear to be most neglected in the current research portfolio," Bourgeois said.
The study was slated for Saturday presentation at the Pediatric
Academic Societies annual meeting, in Boston. The data and
conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a
peer-reviewed journal.
More information
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has more about
children and clinical trials.