Research: Race-based medicine?

The NYT reports on the discovery of a gene that raises the risk of heart attacks in African-Americans by 250%. Six percent of African-Americans carry the gene, called leukotriene A4 hydrolase (catchy, isn't it?), which is involved in the synthesis of leukotrines, agents that maintain a state of inflammation. There's a drug currently in phase III trials that affects a different gene that is also involved in control of leukotrienes. Should a separate study of the drug with only African-American subjects be conducted?

Dr. Troy Duster of New York University, an adviser to the federal Human Genome Project and a past president of the American Sociological Association, said he saw no objection to a trial, provided it focused on African-Americans with the risk-associated variant of the gene and took into account that people with ancestry from different regions of Africa might show variations in risk. But Dr. Charles Rotimi, a genetic epidemiologist at Howard University, said a separate study of African-Americans would not be desirable. The variant gene may be overactive in African-Americans because of their greater exposure to deleterious environments, Dr. Rotimi said.

If that's what Dr. Rotimi said, does he mean that a drug shouldn't be studied because all we need to do to eliminate the increased risk for African-Americans with the leukotriene A4 hydrolase gene is to eliminate their "greater exposure to deleterious environments"? Yeah, forget the pill, we'll just ensure that African-Americans are no longer disproportionately exposed to deleterious environments. I'll just make a few phone calls...

Link (free reg req'd)