Health News
2006-04-04
Activists:
Hepatitis C clinical trial unfairly excludes blacks
Advocacy groups
say blacks are being excluded from clinical trial to skew
study data.
Two advocacy
groups are blasting the decision by pharmaceutical company
Schering-Plough to exclude African-Americans from a clinical
trial of its experimental hepatitis C treatment, a
decision the company says was needed to better gauge
the efficacy of the medications, The [Newark]
Star-Ledger reports.
Schering-Plough
officials say that because African-Americans are
traditionally harder to treat than members of other ethnic
groups, they were excluded from the Phase II clinical
trial of the company’s HCV protease inhibitor
in order to have a clearer picture of how well varying
doses of the medication work. But the Community HIV/AIDS
Mobilization Project and the Hepatitis C Action and
Advocacy Coalition say blacks are being unfairly
excluded because the company is deliberately trying to
skew the study toward favorable results. “It is clear
to us that Schering-Plough chose to exclude an entire
racial group from the study to achieve the best
efficacy results possible on the road to marketing the
drug,” says Brian Klein of HAAC in a press statement.
Bob Consalvo, a
Schering-Plough spokesman, told the Star-Ledger that
the advocacy groups’ concern
“doesn’t make any sense.” He also says
African-Americans will be involved in another phase of
the clinical trial that will be launched after optimum
doses of the medication are identified in the current study.
(The Advocate)
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