When the human genome was unveiled in 2001, researchers made a point of saying that there is no genetic basis for what we call race--whether someone is Asian, African-American, or Caucasian. Mostly, that’s true. There is much more variation within any single racial subgroup than there is between them. So how do we explain the new heart failure pill tested by NitroMed (nasdaq: NTMD)? The pill, a fixed combination of two generic ingredients, is the first drug tested only in African-Americans. Results unveiled this morning here at the American Heart Association meeting and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine are stunning. On top of the best treatments available, BiDil still increased survival of African-American heart failure patients by 43% compared with a sugar pill, while cutting hospitalizations by 33%. That’s particularly impressive because heart failure, a chronic weakening of the heart’s ability to pump blood, has a 50% mortality rate over five years.
