National Minority Health Month Foundation Praises Congressional Black Caucus's Effort To Protect Medical Advancement Of Lifesaving Drugs

Main Category: Stroke / Neuroprotection
Also Included In: Cardiovascular / Cardiology;  Clinical Trials / Drug Trials;  Public Health
Article Date: 09 Mar 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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Gary Puckrein, PhD, executive director of the National Minority Health Month Foundation, today praised the Congressional Black Congress (CBC) for striving to ensure the development of innovative and lifesaving drugs, a core purpose of the Hatch- Waxman Act. "I am pleased that the CBC joins us in urging the Senate Judiciary Committee to move to correct the current patent-law anomaly," said Dr. Puckrein. "The committee has the opportunity to make certain that the development of lifesaving drugs is not halted simply because of an administrative error."

In a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the CBC highlights how African Americans and other minorities suffer disproportionately from certain diseases, such as stroke. African American men are 52 percent more likely than white men to die from stroke, and African American women are 36 percent more likely than white women to die from stroke. In an initial clinical testing, the drug Angiomax showed great promise in the treatment and prevention of stroke and in open-heart surgery, but this blood thinner will not be studied further unless the current legislation is corrected.

A comprehensive clinical trial showed Angiomax reduced serious bleeding by 47 percent and lowered the cost of treatment by $800. Further, African Americans (who are subject to even higher risk factors for coronary disease than the overall population) experienced even greater improvements in health outcomes, including less risk of major bleeding. Dr. Puckrein concluded: "I urge the Judiciary Committee to correct the current patent law anomaly. This correction is vital to the development of innovative, lifesaving drugs," Puckrein concluded.

About the National Minority Health Month Foundation

Founded as a nonprofit organization in 1998, the National Minority Health Month Foundation was established to strengthen national and local efforts to eliminate the disproportionate burden of premature death and preventable illness in racial and ethnic minorities and other special populations through the use of evidence-based, data-driven initiatives. The Foundation has developed a comprehensive relational data platform for identifying the prevalence of health-status and health-care disparities at the zip-code level. This centralized data warehouse allows the Foundation to house vital statistics; demographic, environmental, claims, prescription-drug, and clinical-laboratory values; health-care access points, and other data. The Foundation is thus able to measure and forecast health status in small geographic areas, evaluate the impact of specific interventions, monitor changes in health outcomes, and serve as a valuable resource for the health- disparities movement.

National Minority Health Month Foundation
http://www.nmhmf.org/