The Emerging Focus on Pharmacogenomics

Drugs are designed to treat medical conditions for the general population. Idiosyncratic reactions to drugs are determined by the individual’s respective genetic variations that direct effectiveness and side effects. Adverse drug reactions rank within the top ten leading causes of death in the developed world. The field of pharmacogenomics has advanced in the last fifty years, picking up significant momentum with recent biotechnological developments that allow scientists to investigate the human genome and provide individualized drug therapy that will increase the efficacy of drugs and decrease the incidence of adverse drug reactions. Pharmacogenomics has reached a milestone in making personalized medicine accessible and effective. The medical community shares this responsibility for the emerging focus on pharmacogenomics with regulatory agencies and bioinformatics specialists as they struggle to streamline vast libraries of information and reconcile public and regulatory approval on this critical path to the next level of health care.