Why it's OK if it cures patients The pharmaceutical company Schering-Plough is excluding African-American patients from the Phase II trial of its new Hepatitis C (HCV) anti-viral drug. Activist groups are denouncing this exclusion as racist. For its part, Schering-Plough argues that it has valid scientific grounds for limiting the research at this stage to other racial groups. Company researchers point out that for unknown reasons, black people do not respond as well to HCV treatments as do members of other racial groups. One prominent activist, Judith Dillard, told the Newark Star-Ledger, "The bottom line is that African-Americans have been...