In 1998, a study of hospitalized patients was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reporting that in 1994, the Adverse Drug Reactions was among the leading cause of hospitalizations and death in the United States of American with 2.2 million serious cases of adverse drug reactions, and more than 100,000 deaths.
Scientists have in no way knowing whether a certain patient will respond well, badly or not at all to a given medication. Hence, the pharmaceutical companies do not have an effective method to develop medicines that can deliver optimal results as far as treatment and therapy are concerned. What they have is limited knowledge of making one-size-fits all drugs. Ironically, however, scientists believe that a one-size-fits all does not really fit at all.
Some scientists, in response to the current situation of treating diseases are conducting a new study. Together with annotate knowledge in biochemistry, they are investigating both pharmacology and genomics. Pharmacoecogenomics is the study of how genes react to certain medicines with the hope of being able to develop medicines based on a certain individual's genetic makeup. Among its main goals is to custom-formulate medicines to treat specific diseases of a person. These drugs will be accurate in targeting diseases, and hence, reduce the chances of overdose and adverse reactions.
As of the moment, scientists have been cataloging genetic variations found within the human genome. These genetic variations or SNPs can be utilized as a diagnostic tool to determine a person's response to drug. In order to use SNPs in such manner, the DNA of a person must be sequenced to know the presence of specific SNPs. However, the conventional technology of sequencing the gene is so slow and expensive, and has prevented the widespread use of SNPs as a diagnostic tool.
An alternative to that technology is the DNA microarrays. A single microarray can screen 100,000 SNPs in a patient's genome. And if DNA microarrays are developed further, the SNP screening to determine a patient's response to drug, before the drug prescription will be widely practiced.
An advantage of SNP screening is drug development and testing as pharmaceutical companies could remove from clinical trials patients whose pharmacogenomic screening would indicate that the drug being tested would be ineffective or harmful for them.
Removing these individuals will increase the chance of the drug to show its potential to a certain small population and hence will increase its chances of becoming available in the market. The pre-screened clinical trial of patients will also make the trials smaller, quicker and less expensive. Thus, the public would benefit in reduced drug costs.
With the application of knowledge in pharmacogenomics, patients will be assessed first for their genetic reaction to drug prior to its prescription, thereby, increasing their confidence to take the prescribed drug, which in turn, will increase chances of recovery. Pharmacogenomics offers the best alternative to the standard trial-and-error method of treating the diseases. Most often, patients make many return visits to their doctors simply because the prescribed medicines are not effective or have caused serious adverse reactions.
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