Introduction

Abstract

Race-based medicine is the process pharmaceutical companies use to assign specific drugs to racial groups. The idea of race-based medicine asserts that racial groups are biologically different. Therefore, drugs, tailor-made for racial groups are the best means for efficacious treatment within minority populations. For example, let’s use a headache as an ailment. If an African American, Hispanic, and white individual followed the practice of race-based medicine, they would need an African American, Hispanic, and white aspirin to alleviate discomfort. However, such racially coded aspirin is not beneficial because a headache is not innately different due to anyone’s racial classification. Illnesses and diseases do not discriminate. When all individuals take the same aspirin, the time it will take to alleviate the pain may vary due to each individual’s internal response to pain and medicine, but the reaction to the aspirin is not dependent on external traits.