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Gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study

OBJECTIVE/DESIGN: Lacking diversity in pharmaceutical leadership positions could contribute to inequities in medicine access. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the gender and racial identities of individuals who hold leadership positions in the Canadian pharmaceutical sect...

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Autores principales: Satgunanathan, Kasthuri, Workentin, Aine, Woods, Hannah, Sabir, Areesha, Persaud, Nav
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BMJ Publishing Group 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10649613/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37963692
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076235
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author Satgunanathan, Kasthuri
Workentin, Aine
Woods, Hannah
Sabir, Areesha
Persaud, Nav
author_facet Satgunanathan, Kasthuri
Workentin, Aine
Woods, Hannah
Sabir, Areesha
Persaud, Nav
author_sort Satgunanathan, Kasthuri
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVE/DESIGN: Lacking diversity in pharmaceutical leadership positions could contribute to inequities in medicine access. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the gender and racial identities of individuals who hold leadership positions in the Canadian pharmaceutical sector. PARTICIPANTS: We compiled a list of all Canadian governmental bodies, pharmaceutical companies and insurance providers. We identified individuals who were part of the leadership team, including executives and members of the board of directors. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcomes of the study were the racialisation and gender of the individuals in leadership positions. The gender and racialisation of an individual were determined by reviewing their name, pronouns and institutional profile through internet searches. Two members of the research team performed the assessment and a third reviewer resolved disagreements. RESULTS: We identified 957 individuals holding leadership positions within the pharmaceutical sector, including 280 drug evaluation committee members, 12 governmental executive officers, 273 insurance company executive and board members and 392 executive and board members. Reviewers identified a total of 375 (39.2% of 957) women holding leadership roles, with most of these positions being held by governmental leaders (52.4% of 292) and a minority by insurance (37.0% of 273) and pharmaceutical (30.9% of 392) leaders. There were a total of 157 (16.4% of 957) racialised leaders, with most of these positions being held by governmental (18.5% of 292) and pharmaceutical (18.1% of 392) leaders, and a minority in insurance companies (11.7% of 273). Across the pharmaceutical sector, there were a total of 48 (5.0% of 957) racialised women and 327 (34.2% of 957) white women. CONCLUSIONS: Leaders within the Canadian pharmaceutical sector are mostly white men, and racialised women hold few leadership roles. Public policy should recognise that these institutions are mostly led by white men and reasons for this disparity could be explored.
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spelling pubmed-106496132023-11-14 Gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study Satgunanathan, Kasthuri Workentin, Aine Woods, Hannah Sabir, Areesha Persaud, Nav BMJ Open Health Policy OBJECTIVE/DESIGN: Lacking diversity in pharmaceutical leadership positions could contribute to inequities in medicine access. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to determine the gender and racial identities of individuals who hold leadership positions in the Canadian pharmaceutical sector. PARTICIPANTS: We compiled a list of all Canadian governmental bodies, pharmaceutical companies and insurance providers. We identified individuals who were part of the leadership team, including executives and members of the board of directors. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The main outcomes of the study were the racialisation and gender of the individuals in leadership positions. The gender and racialisation of an individual were determined by reviewing their name, pronouns and institutional profile through internet searches. Two members of the research team performed the assessment and a third reviewer resolved disagreements. RESULTS: We identified 957 individuals holding leadership positions within the pharmaceutical sector, including 280 drug evaluation committee members, 12 governmental executive officers, 273 insurance company executive and board members and 392 executive and board members. Reviewers identified a total of 375 (39.2% of 957) women holding leadership roles, with most of these positions being held by governmental leaders (52.4% of 292) and a minority by insurance (37.0% of 273) and pharmaceutical (30.9% of 392) leaders. There were a total of 157 (16.4% of 957) racialised leaders, with most of these positions being held by governmental (18.5% of 292) and pharmaceutical (18.1% of 392) leaders, and a minority in insurance companies (11.7% of 273). Across the pharmaceutical sector, there were a total of 48 (5.0% of 957) racialised women and 327 (34.2% of 957) white women. CONCLUSIONS: Leaders within the Canadian pharmaceutical sector are mostly white men, and racialised women hold few leadership roles. Public policy should recognise that these institutions are mostly led by white men and reasons for this disparity could be explored. BMJ Publishing Group 2023-11-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10649613/ /pubmed/37963692 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076235 Text en © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Health Policy
Satgunanathan, Kasthuri
Workentin, Aine
Woods, Hannah
Sabir, Areesha
Persaud, Nav
Gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study
title Gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study
title_full Gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study
title_fullStr Gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study
title_full_unstemmed Gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study
title_short Gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in Canada: a cross-sectional study
title_sort gender and racialisation of pharmaceutical sector leaders in canada: a cross-sectional study
topic Health Policy
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10649613/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37963692
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2023-076235
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