From Elissa Jordan
Your piece on race-specific prescriptions was intriguing, but raised some alarming questions for me (11 June, p 42). If new drug development and testing is broken down into categories of race, then what’s to stop European-Americans from only researching diseases that predominantly affect their group, such as multiple sclerosis, or African-American scientists from seeking out solutions to predominantly African-American afflictions such as sickle cell?
This would complicate science, its funding and politics. People would begin looking for financial breakdowns of research funding: is more money going to support “white” or “black” research? It could even deter politicians from giving financial backing to research for fear of alienating potential voters.
If physicians are aware that specific drugs have a higher rate of success in certain groups, they could use the knowledge to benefit patients. But is a race label really necessary?
Marathon, Ontario, Canada
