The company that sells linkurl:BiDil,;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/15896 the first drug to be marketed specifically for linkurl:one race of patients,;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53869 is pulling its marketing and sales support for the drug. While the approval of the drug just for African American patients was met with controversy, the company, Nitromed, cites a "challenging capital market environment" as the reason for pulling its marketing efforts, according to a linkurl:press release.;http://tinyurl.com/39ych9 BiDil is used to treat patients with heart failure, a condition that affects African Americans disproportionately. Keith Ferdinand, the chief science officer for the Association of Black Cardiologists and an investigator on BiDil clinical trials, said in an interview with __The Scientist__ in November, 2007 that BiDil's failure on the market was "because of its high cost, it became a barrier to use." According to the linkurl:Wall Street Journal Health Blog,;http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/01/16/first-racially-targeted-drug-is-a-flop/ "...it was nothing more than a combination of two old drugs that are available as...
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