Clinical Significance of Precision Medicine – Genomics and Pharmacogenomics (PGx)

Abstract

Precision medicine in the form of Pharmacogenomics (PGx) promises personalized medicine rather than the established “one size fits all” approach to drugs and dosages, and will be one of the first clinical applications of the PM. It has been expected that the reduction in trial and error as a result of PGx would lead to efficacious drugs, thereby preventing avoidable deaths, costly hospitalizations and wastage resulting from adverse reactions (ADRs) and from unsafe and ineffective drugs. PGx has the potential to tailor treatments based on the variation of individual’s genetic variation, consequently, effectively enhancing drug effectiveness, and reducing toxicity, and resulting in the improved management of conditions from prevention to treatment – depending on the availability of targeted therapies, both nationally and globally. However, bioethicists are worried about costs in global communities leading to inequities in access to much needed targeted therapies for communicable and noncommunicable diseases pertaining to the needs of developing and resource-poor countries, thereby increasing health disparities. This chapter looks at clinical significance of PGx for both developed and developing countries, while also discussing the anticipated ethical and social challenges that need to be addressed to realize PGx’s potential in the clinical realm fully.