PhD Candidate Constance Viehbeck Visits Harvard-MIT CRS

PhD candidate Constance Viehbeck spent September visiting the Harvard-MIT Center for Regulatory Science, where she advanced her research into pharmaceutical regulation and health equity. This visit comes after receiving a grant from the LSE Phelan US Centre.

The summer research grants aim to encourage innovative research on the United States and support students pursuing postgraduate research on topics related to the Centre's overall mission of promoting internationally oriented scholarship on America's changing role in the world.

Constance's research examines why women and ethnic minorities are often missing from the clinical trials underlying drug approvals, and why regulatory institutions have been slow to address this.

During the visit, she worked with researchers at the Center and connected with colleagues across the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, exchanging ideas that sharpened her research and opened new lines of enquiry.

Constance shared the following reflections on her experience at Harvard-MIT:

Being at Harvard has let me test my ideas against the expertise of people working right at the heart of drug regulation and health equity. It was formative for both my research and my sense of what's possible early in an academic career.

Supported by an LSE Phelan US Centre PhD Research Grant, the visit speaks to a broader question in health policy: how to embed equity into pharmaceutical regulation itself.