Race in a bottle : the story of BiDil and racialized medicine in a post-genomic age / Jonathan Kahn ; cover design by David Drummond.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Approved by the FDA in 2005, BiDil was originally touted as a pathbreaking therapy to treat heart failure in black patients and help underserved populations. Upon closer examination, Jonathan Kahn reveals BiDil became racial through legal maneuvering and commercial pressure as much as through medical understandings of how the drug worked. Using BiDil as a case study, Kahn broadly examines the distinct politics informing the use of race in medicine and the very real health disparities caused by racism and social injustice that are being cast as a function of genetic difference. Kahn shows that, just as genetics is a complex field requiring sensitivity and expertise, so too is race, particularly in the field of biomedicine.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Kahn (law, Hamline Univ.; Budgeting Democracy: State Building and Citizenship in America, 1890-1928) has expanded his 2007 Scientific American article, "Race in a Bottle," into this full-length exploration of economics and ethics at the crossroads of medicine and race. Using as an example the heart medication BiDil (marketed specifically for patients of African descent), Kahn discusses how race has become a commodity, a new sales point for pharmaceutical companies. However, as scientific research into the human genome advances, developing and marketing drugs from a racial perspective becomes moot, as genomic differences between races are not evident. Kahn expertly weaves together the legal and ethical ramifications of continuing to pursue racialized drugs. But he does not just report; Kahn also writes up his conclusions and recommendations, demonstrating a long interaction with this topic. VERDICT Recommended for lay scientists and readers of popular magazines like Scientific American and New Scientist. Although no background in health sciences or genetics is necessary to understand this work, readers already familiar with terms such as genome and pharmacogenomics will most enjoy this book.-Rachel M. Minkin, Michigan State Univ. Libs., Lansing (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Kahn (Hamline University School of Law; Budgeting Democracy, CH, Mar'98, 35-4066), an attorney with a PhD in history, is well qualified to analyze the consequences which followed the FDA approval and subsequent marketing of the drug BiDil (a combination of two cardioactive drugs combined into a single pill) for the treatment of heart failure, specifically in blacks. The drug is also effective in whites, but was approved on the basis of studies conducted only on black patients. As to be expected, this designation (the first) of a drug as race-specific with the imprimatur of the FDA has given rise to controversy over the use of race as a relevant biomedical variable. Since there is no evidence for a genetic basis for race, Kahn argues that the term should be defined and used as a biosocial construct instead; this would include the social, historic, economic, and other factors affecting the health of racial groups. The work is well organized and presented, and includes an extensive list of notes; however, it requires careful reading since some arguments are repetitious. The author presents a fairly unbiased picture of the multiple implications of the use of race in biomedical science. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Academic and professional collections, all levels. R. S. Kowalczyk formerly, University of Michigan