BiDil: race medicine or race marketing?
Recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first drug with a race-specific indication has fueled the controversy over the meaning of race and ethnicity and raised questions over whether this move should be seen as an advance or a setback in the struggle to address disparities in health status associated with race. The drug, BiDil, combines two generics long recognized as benefiting patients with heart failure, irrespective of race or ethnicity. The push to bring these drugs to market as a race-specific treatment was motivated by the culiarities of U.S. patent law and willingness exploit race to gain commercial and regulatory advantage.
Sankar
Pamela
P
Department of Medical Ethics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. sankarp@mail.med.upenn.edu
Kahn
Jonathan
J
D003132:Commerce; D004338:Drug Combinations; D015195:Drug Design; D004345:Drug Industry; D006801:Humans; D006830:Hydralazine; D007548:Isosorbide Dinitrate; D044469:Racial Groups; D014481:United States; D014486:United States Food and Drug Administration
D004338:Drug Combinations; C431665:isosorbide-hydralazine combination; D006830:Hydralazine; D007548:Isosorbide Dinitrate