Pharmacogenomics: Future Promise of a Tool for Identifying Patients at Risk

Abstract

Pharmacogenomics is an emerging field in drug development and clinical medicine. The advent of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and genetic maps of these markers have made the potential for broad applications of this field possible. Drug development and therapeutic success of a compound may be affected by genetic factors that contribute to safety, efficacy, and economics. Pharmacogenomics has the potential for important applications and contributions to help identify and/or minimize adverse events of therapeutic compounds. Some of this knowledge is being applied currently, and as more genetic contributions to drug safety are identified, the applications will increase. Pharmacogenomics may provide opportunities to improve clinical development outcomes, reduce costs of development, increase efficacy and reduce adverse events for specific patients, and develop diagnostic and/or prognostic tests that impact therapeutic decisions.

Keywords

Drug safety Pharmacogenetics Pharmacogenomics Adverse events Patient risk

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Weber

Pharmacogenetics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1997.

Parkinson

Biotransformation of xenobiotics. In: Klaasen

ed. Casaren & Doull's Toxicology: The Basic Science of Poisons. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.; 1996:113–186.

Pardridge

CNS drug design based on principles of blood-brain barrier transport. J Neurochem. 1998;70(5):1781–1792.

Poirier

Apolipoprotein E4, cholinergic integrity and the pharmacogenetics of Alzheimer's disease. J Psychiatry Neurosci. 1999;24(2):147–153.