Rapid Fire
Pharmacogenomics
- 22 Nov 2025
- 2 min read
Pharmacogenomics is revolutionizing healthcare by moving away from the traditional one-size-fits-all approach to using an individual's genetic makeup to predict drug response, enhance efficacy, and prevent adverse reactions.
- About Pharmacogenomics: It combines pharmacology (study of drugs) with genomics (study of genes) and studies how genetic variations affect an individual's response to drugs, determining if a medication will be effective, ineffective, or harmful.
- Relevance & Benefits: Approximately 90% of people carry at least one actionable pharmacogenetic variant, making this a common issue, not a rare one.
- Genetic testing now costs USD 200–500, making it more affordable, and is most cost-effective for chronic disease management.
- Drugs will be tailored based on proteins, enzymes, and RNA linked to specific diseases, improving target precision for individual needs.
- Genetic profiles enable doctors to prescribe the most effective drug from the start, reducing adverse reactions and speeding recovery.
- Key Concerns Related to Pharmacogenomics: Millions of SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) need analysis, and linking them to drug responses is challenging.
- Genetic variants may limit available treatments for certain conditions.
- Developing drugs for smaller genetic groups is costly, deterring investment.
- Proven Clinical Impact: It is clinically proven to optimize treatments for drugs like Warfarin (Blood Thinner) and Clopidogrel (Heart Drug), and is critical in psychiatry and oncology to prevent adverse events and improve outcomes.
| Read More: Genome Sequencing |
