International Women’s Day 2025: Accelerate Action

International Women's Day is more than a celebration; it is a global call to #AccelerateAction and to acknowledge strategies, resources and activities that positively impact women's advancement. At UCB, we embrace this wholeheartedly, particularly when it comes to ensuring that women of childbearing age have equitable access to clinical research and, ultimately, the best possible care. 

Historically, women, particularly those of childbearing age, pregnant, or breastfeeding, have been underrepresented in clinical trials. This gap in research has significant implications, limiting understanding of how treatments affect these populations and leaving many women without clear information on the risks and benefits of their medications.i It is imperative that we #AccelerateAction to address these disparities and drive meaningful change in clinical research, ensuring women are adequately represented. 

In the past year, we’ve delved deeper into the experiences of women of childbearing age living with chronic diseases, shedding light on critical gaps in their healthcare journey. Through a social listening study analyzing over 1.2 million posts from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA, we identified 2,600 posts from women navigating pregnancy and chronic illness. The results of the analysis highlighted four key areas of unmet need: lack of patient support, inadequate specialist discussions, suboptimal coordination of care pathways and the greater need for empowering these patient populations. We concluded that to bridge these gaps, ongoing collaboration is essential to:

• Establish moderated online and in-person support services to reduce misinformation and provide platforms for communication between patients and healthcare professionals
• Develop educational resources for patients and healthcare professionals
• Create tools to enable discussion between women of childbearing age with chronic diseases and their healthcare professionals.

These partnerships and actions are instrumental in driving forward our shared goals so that all women have access to evidence-based healthcare. Collaboration is key to accelerating action. We are proud to partner with patient communities, scientific communities, regulators and policymakers to promote the inclusion of women in clinical trials. Within our work supporting women living with chronic diseases during their reproductive years, we successfully collaborated with the Epilepsy Foundation, HS Connect, IFPA, MG Holistic Society, Living Well with Epilepsy and Lupus Europe to support the development of a discussion guide to promote open discussions about reproductive health between these women and their healthcare professional. It includes background information and key conversation starters to support these discussions to help everyone involved prepare for the future. To read more, visit: https://www.ucb.com/sites/default/files/2024-12/20598_UCB_WoCBA_Discussion_guide%20B_AW0_0.pdf

Looking to the year ahead, the ICH E21 Guideline for Inclusion of Pregnant and Breastfeeding Individuals in Clinical Trials is expected to be available for public comment later this year. Additionally, we look forward to continued collaboration with the BRIDGE Commission (Better Research, Information and Data Generation for Empowerment) to provide administrative and communications support.

In my role at UCB, I am personally committed to this cause. I believe that by working together to champion the inclusion of women in clinical trials, we are not only advancing scientific knowledge but also honoring the fundamental principles of health equity.

On this International Women's Day, let us unite in our efforts to create a world where women receive the care and treatment they deserve. Together, we can make a lasting impact on women's health and wellbeing.

Follow me, @MarieTeil, on LinkedIn, and stay connected with UCB’s social channels for ongoing updates on our progress.