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BiDil: A Case Study of Racial Medicine
By Lisa Moldan
Abstract
In 2005, the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) approved the first race-specific drug, BiDil, for
marketization. Patented by the pharmaceutical company NitroMed, BiDil is to be
prescribed exclusively to African Americans for the purposes of treating and
preventing heart disease and failure. As a result of its release, debates
erupted over the legitimacy of the research and approval processes, the advancement
and application of the science of pharmacogenetics,
whether racial medicine would be an advancement or setback in the efforts to
equalize health care access and health status amongst races, whether or not the
meanings of race would change for the worse, the role of the citizen, and more.
This website details the development, approval, and
marketing of BiDil, as well as the layers of controversy surrounding it, including competing stakeholders, systems of
knowledge, and strategies. Three
primary controversies manifest themselves: First, the legitimacy
pharmacogenetics and racial medicines is a highly disputed
topic. Second, the decision making processes and power dynamics
related to the development, approval, and marketing of BiDil are of
concern, especially relative to the advancement of the
profit-maximizing agendas of pharmaceutical companies. Third, the
social impacts of racial medicine are contested and uncertain,
especially those relating to the meaning of race and the health
disparities between races. Principally, this website will project a
BiDil-opposed position, highlighting the convoluted, undemocratic
evolution of BiDil and the society-wide, negative externalities of
racialized medicines.
Due
to BiDil's poor marketing, racialized medicines have thus far existed
below the radar of most citizens, activist groups, and the like. It has
essentailly failed as the poster child for racial medicines. But,
scholars keen on the research predict that more racialized medicines
are on the way, and citizens need to be informed about the nature of
these drugs; that is, the fundamentally unequal power structures and
discourses which they perpetuate and their potential to exacerbate
racial health disparities in a number of ways. Citizens are encouraged
to make conscious consumer choices against BiDil. Rather than
specifically targeting the production and availability of BiDil and
racial medicines, citizens should put effort into addressing the real
social inequalities that exacerbate health disparities like access to
equal housing, education, employment, preventive health care, and
political institutions.
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Figure 1: Racial Collage
Anyone could develop heart diseases. Are racial medicines really the answer to health disparities?
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