Drug development: No Mom Left Behind
Photo by Kendal on Unsplash Historically, during drug and vaccine development, pregnant women were rarely included in clinical trials due to ethical considerations and, more importantly, concerns over safety in pregnancy and fetal health. During the recent Ebola outbreak, pregnant women were denied access to Ebola vaccines—although this decision was reversed months later in February 2019. While the safety and ethical concerns for pregnant mothers and their fetuses regarding experimental drugs definitely have their merits, this raises the question on how we can improve the drug development pipeline to equally benefit everyone later on. No one should be left behind. As the world is rushing to develop drugs and vaccines for the new rapidly-spreading life-threatening coronavirus disease (COVID-19), we may need to revisit the topic of how we can make sure that everyone, including pregnant women, will equally benefit from the life-saving drugs and vaccines amidst a pending