Is pharmacogenetics being racialized? An investigation into the reinscription of racial beliefs in modern biomedicine

Racial classifications have a complex and troubled past in the social and scientific history of humankind. They are the result of racism and have been used to devalue and degrade non-White people. Although the concept of race has acquired a social component and the genetic similarity of people based on race has been proven, the category is increasingly used in pharmacogenetic studies to create biased study populations under the guise of personalized medicine. The heart failure drug BiDil, which was only approved for Black people in 2005, gained particular notoriety. Its race-specific approval reignited the debate about the assumption that there are genetic differences between people of different races and led to a further biopolitical instrumentalization of the term 'race'. Despite the expiry of the race-specific patent, race-specific labeling continues to take place in research. In this paper, these racializations of pharmacogenetics are examined, explaining how they arise and how they are kept alive. Finally, this paper argues for better moderation of race in pharmacogenetic studies.