William J Brown - All Headline News Staff

A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel gave approval Wednesday to the first medicine targeting a specific racial group.

The cardiac medicine, BiDil from Nitromed Inc.'s garnered FDA staff backing for use treating black people.

BiDil is a mixture of two generic cardiac drugs that have been used for years to treat chest pain and high blood pressure.

While African-Americans do have a higher incidence of cardiac failure than caucasians, the drug's critics contended that the designation is a marketing gimmick, since there has been no scientific proof offered that shows that the medicine works any better in blacks compared to caucasians.

A study of 1,050 blacks who diagnosed with cardiac failure found the drug increased survival rates and reduced hospitalization by almost a third.