Race, medicine, and social justice: pharmacogenetics, diversity, and the case of BiDil

In this article, I probe an example of high-technology medicine as a case study in the problems of the regulation of advancing technology. Specifically, I address the implications of pharmacogenomics--an emerging form of population-based health care intervention--for public policies designed to eliminate racial disparities in health. Using the case of BiDil, a historical precursor to pharmacogenetic technology, I offer a framework for further studies of high-technology medicine in which policy analysis is part of a social review based on the justice standard of ex ante mutual advantage. It is the contention in this article that the most just and reasonable deployment of pharmacogenomics is as a compensatory tool to alleviate health disparities. KEY WORDS: health policy, pharmacogenetics, racial disparities, social justice