US approves first 'ethnic drug'
BBC NEWS :
US drugs regulators have approved a heart failure drug specifically for treating black patients. The Food and Drug Administration gave BiDil the go-ahead after tests found it cut by 43% deaths in heart patients who identified themselves as black. The FDA says the drug is a step towards the promise of tailored medicine. ... However, some doctors and ethicists have objected to the licensing of BiDil saying there is no biological reason why it should work differently on patients of different races.This is an interesting development. On the one hand, I certainly welcome progress toward more tailored medicine. That is wonderful, and I expect that we will continue to see great improvement in this field. On the other hand, I am all for a 'color-blind' society where race plays less and less of an issue. It would be nice if the world actually worked the way I would like and racial differences were entirely trivial. The effectiveness of this medicine calls that into question. If a medicine only works for one race, what other differences will we find over time. This could end up being a pandoras box. I don't believe that blacks are more racially inclined to violence (to use a common sterotype.) What if they were though? What if we find more racial differences that are psycological in nature? I am not sure how our society would, or should react to such a development. I believe that what is, is and we cannot ignore it or make it go away just because we don't like it. I also believe though that we should strive for what ought to be, not just be content with what is.
posted by Dave Justus | 6/24/2005 09:15:00 AM
3 Comments:
"On the other hand, I am all for a 'color-blind' society where race plays less and less of an issue. It would be nice if the world actually worked the way I would like and racial differences were entirely trivial. The effectiveness of this medicine calls that into question."
The american black man is unusual because of what was done to his gene pool by the slaveholders.
From when they were frist brought over the years of selective human breeding that occured, I am not suprised that some medicine would react different between their bodies and the bodies of whites.
I also find it odd you are suprised. We have know for a long time about Sickle cell, and that only affects one race.
Hey, this drug is all in favor of a color-blind society.
As long as you IDENTIFY yourself as black, this drug works for you. So, if you have heart troubles, just go to your doctor, tell him you're black, and it's all yours.
(For those who don't follow, I'm pointing out yet another shortcoming of PC culture. They can't say it helps black people, they have to say it helps people who identify themselves as black. What a crock.)
"Sickle Cell Anemia is most prevelant in the Black population, but it affects all races. The reason it is most common amoung Africans is that the gene that causes it also protects against Malaria."
I thought the disease was present in only black americans, i must have misread the information them...intresting.
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