Pharmacogenomics – The New Trend for Personalized Medicine

Abstract

Pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics are two major emerging trends in medical sciences, which influence the success of drug development and therapeutics. In current times, though pharmacogenetic studies are being done extensively for research, its application for drug development needs to get started on a large scale. Pharmacogenetic studies can be used at various stages of drug development. The effect of drug target polymorphisms on drug response can be assessed and identified. In clinical studies, pharmacogenetic tests can be used for stratification of patients based on their genotype, which corresponds to their metabolizing capacity. This prevents the occurrence of severe adverse drug reactions and helps in better outcome of clinical trials. This can also reduce attrition of drug compounds. Recognition of inter-individual differences in drug response is an essential step towards optimizing therapy. Over the past decades, much evidence has emerged indicating that a substantial portion of variability in drug response is genetically determined, with age, nutrition, health status, environmental exposure, and concurrent therapy playing important contributory roles. To achieve individual drug therapy with a reasonably predictive outcome, one must further account for different patterns of drug response among geographically and ethnically distinct populations.