Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Pharma's Entry into Ethnocentric Drugs Stumbles, or not?

Scientific American has a fabulous article on BiDil, a congestive heart failure drug aimed at African-American's. [I wonder if it works on people from Africa---they didn't mention that in the article].

The approval was widely declared to be a significant step toward a new era of personalized medicine, an era in which pharmaceuticals would be specifically designed to work with an individual’s particular genetic makeup. Known as pharmacogenomics, this approach to drug development promises to reduce the cost and increase the safety and efficacy of new therapies. BiDil was also hailed as a means to improve the health of African-Americans, a community woefully underserved by the U.S. medical establishment. Organizations such as the Association of Black Cardiologists and the Congressional Black Caucus strongly supported the drug’s approval.
The article goes on to cover other drugs such as AIDSVax, which worded its study to include Asian and Black Americans.

No comments: