Nitromed, Inc. (NTMD)

[surf1944]

Shame on the Congressional Black Caucus – Yes, This is About Biotech

Oct 1 2007
by Michael Shulman
BiotechBlitz

I live in Washington and there has been an almost unprecedented level of political scrutiny and interference with a Medicare decision to cut reimbursement guidelines for the anemia drug Aranesp when used in chemotherapy and renal dialysis. Hidden from the view of most people has been the role of the Congressional Black Caucus -- according to some analysts 40% or more of renal dialysis patients receiving Aranesp are African American.

So the lobbyists went to work, predicting dialysis treatment centers would close and African Americans would be hurt the most. One company operating centers, DaVita, which makes a profit on every does of Aranesp it administers spent $1.5 million bucks and Aranesp’s parent Amgen spent another half million dollars in the first half of this year.

I would love to know how much of that money went to Black Caucus members. And how much more since then. And when I have a bit of time, I will go through public records and find out.

Too bad these politicians and their staffers won’t work this hard for a critical life saving drug unless the company making that drug has the bucks to buy their time and attention. I am speaking of the drug BiDil from the company NitroMed (NTMD).

In clinical trials, BiDil reduced death from heart attacks by more than 40% in African Americans. Heck, the trial was stopped on ethical reasons so all the patients on placebo could switch to the medication -- it was so effective. It was approved by the FDA, the first drug every approved for use by one ethnic group. And Medicare, without any pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus that I could see, gave it a poor guideline for co-payment -- meaning it could cost users as much as $50 per month.

Given that BiDil should be taken with two other heart medications, a lot of people could not afford the co-pay and private insurers follow more often than not follow Medicare guidelines. The bottom line is hundreds, perhaps thousands of African Americans have needlessly died since the FDA approval -- needlessly because the drug is too expensive for too many people.

These unnecessary deaths FAR exceed the number of African Americans killed in Iraq. And guess who has made a major argument against the war? That most self-righteous group of politicians, the Congressional Black Caucus.

Their behavior is proof that racial politics has come mainstream. A political organizations supposedly organized to protect a certain group -- in this case African Americans -- really doesn’t give a damn about their constituents, unless they're lobbied (dare I say, paid) to do so.