BIRMINGHAM, AL — The UAB Minority Health and Research Center will hold a forum, “Targeting Race in Biomedical Interventions: The BiDil Experience,” on Thursday, August 11, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

The forum, designed for researchers and physicians, will feature presentations by Harold Kincaid, Ph.D., director of the UAB Center for Ethics and Values in the Sciences, and John R. Stone, M.D., Ph.D., a physician and philosopher at the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics.

BiDil was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in June, becoming the first drug approved exclusively for one race, African-Americans. Eight years ago the drug for congestive heart failure was rejected for use in the general public, but a study of 1,050 African-American heart failure patients showed that BiDil significantly reduced death and hospitalization. It widens blood vessels by increasing levels of nitric oxide.

BiDil’s approval created controversy, with many scientists saying that race is too broad and ill-defined a category to play a role in the approval process. Scientists and ethicists have long debated whether race has a biological basis.

Call (205) 996-2880 for more information or go to Web site www.uabmhrc.com.