From disparity to difference: how race-specific medicines may undermine policies to address inequalities in health care.

On June 23, 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) formally approved the heart failure drug BiDil to treat heart failure in “selfidentified black patients.” The drug itself is not actually new; it is merely a combination of two generic drugs that have been used to treat heart failure for over a decade. BiDil's newness derives primarily from its public presentation as the world's first "ethnic" drug.