Pharmacogenomics (or sometimes called Pharmacogenetics) is the study of how a person’s genes affect a person’s response to different medications. Simply put people’s bodies respond different to the same medications. And it is possible to predict how YOUR body and organs will respond to a certain medication. The information is personal, and precise as well as non-negotiable. There is no “let’s try and see if it works”. If your genes are not appropriate for a certain medication, that medication will never work for you! Full stop! One cannot use someone else’s genetic results to guide another person’s drug treatment. Pharmacology (the science of drugs) and genomics (the study of genes and their functions) are put together to develop effective, safe medications and doses that will be tailored to a person’s genetic makeup.

 

Most drugs are prescribed currently as “one size fits all,” but they do not work the same way for everyone. It can be difficult to predict who will benefit from a medication, who will not respond at all, and who will experience negative side effects (called adverse drug reactions). Adverse drug reactions are a significant cause of hospitalizations and deaths worldwide and here. Pharmacogenetics provides knowledge about how a person’s body will react to medications and thus allows medical professionals to decide how to prescribe medications in ways that are appropriate to improve efficacy and avoid adverse drug reactions. Many conditions will affect a person’s response to certain drugs such as clopidogrel sensitivity and resistance, warfarin sensitivity, warfarin resistance, malignant hyperthermia, Stevens-Johnson syndrome/toxic epidermal necrolysis, and thiopurine S-methyltransferase deficiency. Knowing how a person reacts to those will improve treatments and avoid sometimes lethal adverse reactions.

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Pharmacogenomics is a rapidly developing field and the knowledge it provides is actionable and imperative to use for the safety of all patients. At THAI StemLife, we provide a PHARMACOGENETIC report (PharmaFIT) that includes almost any known medication. In a 40-page report your Doctor will be informed about which medications to choose for a wide range of health conditions.