Heart Medication Approved for Blacks Faces Uphill Battle

October 17, 2006

In June 2005, the Food and Drug Administration made history by approving the first drug authorized for use in a single racial group.

The drug, BiDil, was cleared to treat congestive heart failure exclusively in African-Americans. A clinical trial sponsored by NitroMed Inc., the drug’s maker, showed that within a year of usage, BiDil reduced deaths by 43% among black patients who had tried other medicines. It worked so well that an independent advisory board deemed it unethical to deny the drug to trial participants who, for comparison purposes, had been taking a placebo.

Yet after more than a year on the market, BiDil is reaching only about 1% of the 750,000 African-Americans who suffer from heart failure.(Wall Street Journal {subscription required})