Women in Clinical Trials
When new drugs or medical procedures are ready to be tested on human subjects, researchers find volunteers for clinical trials. However, far more men than women are used as subjects during these trials.
It was widely assumed for many years that women and men would respond to medication in the same way. Therefore, it did not seem to matter whether men or women were participating in clinical trials. Because of this, researchers mostly drew from pools of male volunteers because they were perceived to be more low-risk (and accordingly, less expensive to include in a trial). Women who are pregnant, nursing, post-menopausal or even simply of childbearing age are considered too "risky" to participate in clinical trials. These parameters essentially eliminate all women. However, it is difficult to determine whether this decision to eliminate women was made out of beneficence or paternalism.
The main problem with this gender discrepancy is that men and women are physiologically different. Their bodies process medications and respond to treatments differently. The over-representation of men in clinical trials has impeded the progress of understanding how new medications will affect women.
Question: Which of the following can be inferred based on information in the passage?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

We can assume this to be true because the author states that men's and women's' bodies "process medications and respond to treatments differently."
The author does not imply that researchers knew the dangers of not testing medications on women.
The author does not suggest that some newer drugs are more harmful to the trial volunteers than older ones.
On average, men and women respond the same to any given drug is incorrect. The author argues that the opposite is true. The point of the passage is that men and women might respond very differently to a given drug or medical procedure.