Gist Healthcare Podcast

Why pregnant women are still missing from drug trials and why it matters now

KauffmanPodcast
By J Carlisle Larsen
13 min readOct 13, 2025
Strategy partnerships and innovation

Gist Healthcare Podcast from KaufmanHall

For decades, pregnant women have been excluded from most clinical drug trials. The policy was meant to protect mothers and babies, but it has left major gaps in medical knowledge. Now, renewed debate over the safety of common medicines like Tylenol has brought those gaps into sharp focus.

In this episode, STAT News reporter Lizzy Lawrence joins host J. Carlisle Larsen to discuss how history, politics, and caution shaped the science of pregnancy, and what it will take to ensure women are fully included in research that affects their health. 

You can read her piece here.

Author

J Carlisle Larsen

J. Carlisle Larsen

Vice President, Senior Producer

J. Carlisle Larsen, JC, is Vice President, Senior Producer for Kaufman Hall. Her responsibilities include breaking down healthcare business and policy news. Prior to joining Kaufman Hall, JC spent 10 years working in the Midwest WDET-FM (Detroit’s NPR Station) and Wisconsin Public Radio covering a wider range of topics, from social issues to healthcare politics. Her work has appeared on...