Drug racism?

I just read an article, published a couple months ago, about drug research, and the fact that researchers are ignoring the differences that might come up because of race.

I find these researchers and their attitudes to make absolutely no sense. If one culture eats predominantly more of whatever vitamin in their diets than others, lets just say vitamin B, then they won’t suffer from any conditions that result from lacking that vitamin. However, if another race eats a lot of iron in their diet, if they are given a drug that also has a very high dose of iron, that could result in adverse health effects.

News flash; different cultures don’t all eat the same, we don’t all exercise the same amount, and we don’t all have the same lifestyles. Some different eating habits ARE based on culture. Some different lifestyle habits ARE based on environment, and tradition. So to ignore the fact that differences in culture are important when studying drugs is to ignore the fact that humans are different. For example, you wouldn’t NOT take into consideration the fact that some people are allergic to some drugs if they have the medic bracelet. You wouldn’t ignore their bracelet and administer the drugs to them regardless. Why then would it make sense for the drug researchers to discount the possibility that people of different cultures would be, as a group, allergic to some sort of drug on the market, or at least, it would have no effect on them – meaning not treat their disease?

For example, if one drug has no effect on Italians, then upping the dose would still have no effect in curing the disease, and soon your Italian patient would be dead because of some reason like the wine they drink combined with the ravioli they eat blocks the active ingredient in the medicine your giving them. But you as a drug researcher pretend this doesn’t exist. You’re still looking at a dead patient! The drug researchers seem to not want to broach the topic because it could be considered politically incorrect; “this can fuel social conceptions that there are meaningful genetic differences between races”, says one Jonathan D. Kahn. Well, so what if there are! And, “scientists are struggling to understand why many drugs don’t work alike in all races”. *sigh*. Please read this blog.