The COVID-19 pandemic and gaps in recent drug breakthroughs have highlighted the need for representation in clinical research. LISC’s supplier diversity effort is helping drive economic and healthcare equity by supporting innovative businesses behind essential technologies and products. Thanks to financing through the Abbott-LISC Initiative to Support Diverse Businesses in Health, Tranquil Clinical Research can advance efforts to center the needs of communities most impacted by disease through treatment trials, drug development, and more.
When news of groundbreaking Alzheimer's treatments broke earlier this summer, the communities most impacted by the disease couldn’t let out a sigh of relief just yet. Black Americans and Hispanics were screened out of clinical trials at a higher rate for the experimental drugs and may not benefit from the new developments as much as whites. Individuals can experience the same disease differently, making it critical for pharmaceutical companies to understand how the effectiveness of certain treatments varies across genetic makeups.
Addressing the lack of diversity in treatment studies is top of mind for Karim Mohammed, founder and CEO of Tranquil Clinical Research. LISC is helping finance the Houston-based organization's efforts to prioritize the inclusion of communities of color in the clinical research and development process.
Despite Tranquil Clinical Research’s success offering end-of-life treatment services for cancer patients and supporting vaccine development, and Mohammed’s 20-year track record in the field, securing capital still presented a challenge. With a line of credit already maxed out at a major bank, and trials on hold during the COVID-19 pandemic which hurt revenue, traditional lenders were hesitant to approve Tranquil Clinical Research for a loan to keep the business afloat. Mohammed considered downsizing, a move that would’ve limited the company’s ability to continue providing necessary healthcare client services, devices, and research at scale.
“LISC came up at the best time because there aren't a lot of other options,” Mohammed said. “It's a really hard to run a business when I'm waiting three months, sometimes six months, for funds.”
Tranquil Clinical Research received a $500,000 working loan from the Abbott-LISC Initiative to Support Diverse Businesses in Health to help manage a growing volume of work by addressing a cash flow gap and reducing high-cost debt. The financing, with a 5-year repayment period and a lower interest rate, will allow the organization to maintain its daily operations with more flexibility.
“With LISC’s mission and thanks to our capital sources, we can see the opportunities in front of business owners and provide affordable capital tailored to their specific needs,” Tamara Underwood, a small business underwriter with LISC’s lending team, said. “We're able to consider not only past performance and but also future revenues and support businesses as they stabilize and grow.”
Tranquil Clinical Research’s loan is also part of LISC’s Project 10X supplier diversity effort to address employment disparities in underserved communities by championing companies that prioritize diverse hiring. The effort equips entrepreneurs to become part of corporate supply chains through growth capital and low-cost loans, technical assistance, and coaching. Only about 10% of corporate spending is currently allocated to diverse suppliers, yet leveling the playing field would add an estimated $290 billion to the economy.
More inclusive supply chains can also help drive economic and healthcare equity by supporting the creation of life-changing technologies and products. Increasing investment in clinical research organizations with a focus on diversity can improve health outcomes among underserved populations. Communities of color disproportionately experience poor health and disease, yet due to mistrust stemming from a long history of discrimination by the medical establishment, lack of access, and other factors, they are underrepresented in clinical trials and research. Studies estimate that Black Americans make up about 8% of participants in clinical trials but represent 13% of the US population, and Hispanics account for 11% in trials, even though they are 16% of the national population, negatively affecting the care that people of color receive.
Clinical trials are sometimes a patient’s only chance at receiving treatment, but they’re often conducted at large university-affiliated healthcare centers in areas that are out of reach for low-income communities of color. Positioned outside of one of the most diverse cities in the US, Tranquil Clinical Research engages underserved populations nearby.
In fact, Mohammed said he helped popularize the term ‘research equity’ within the field. Tranquil Clinical Research aims to include 30% or more diverse subjects in every trial. To meet that target, the company conducts a range of community outreach, from plugging into local African-American churches to partnering with area organizations that provide free healthcare to Hispanic immigrants.
Tranquil Clinical Research’s holistic approach sets them apart in a landscape that can at times be impersonal and intimidating, Mohammed explained. Their facilities include fridges stocked with snacks tailored to patients’ requests and welcoming sitting areas, a departure from the typical bare-wall-and-fluorescent-light atmosphere of most clinical trial spaces. And the company takes the extra time to make patients feel heard. During the COVID-19 pandemic, one African-American woman risked being shunned by her loved ones for participating in a clinical trial for monoclonal antibodies.
“Just by talking to her and opening ourselves up to her family changed the conversation,” Mohammed said.
Ensuring that clients know they aren’t just research subjects to Tranquil Clinical Research is key to the company’s model. When conducting breast cancer trials, they go the extra mile to deploy buses around Houston and offer free mammograms, too.
“Our job isn't just the patient on the study,” Mohammed said. “Our job is the wellbeing of our patient on the study. That's something that I want to imprint [on others], that doing the right thing doesn't just mean [staying] within my scope.”
Investments in entrepreneurs of color like Mohammed who tend to hire other minorities and contribute to building community wealth have a ripple effect, explained Akilah Hicks, a LISC senior program officer who works on the supplier diversity effort.
“We want to support those companies by helping them grow and build their capacity,” she added. “We want to help our partners to diversify their supply chains because when you have diversity in supply chains, it lends to more equitable communities overall.”