Pharmacogenomics in Personalized Drug Therapy: Bridging the Gap Between Genetic Variants and Drug Efficacy

Abstract

The field of pharmacogenomics (how genetic differences contribute to differences in reactivity to drugs) is transforming personalized medicine. Pharmacogenomics can play an important role in enhancing drug treatment efficacy and safety by understanding individual pharmacogenetic factors that influence drug metabolism, efficacy and safety and ultimately provide optimized drug therapy. This paper discusses the application of pharmacogenomics in the development of individualized drug therapy, and the ways that genetic differences affect drug reactions, drug response and the response of drug therapy. The paper also addresses the issue of pharmacogenomics incorporation into the clinical practice wherein genetic testing, patient stratification, and the establishment of genotype-guided treatment approaches receive primary attention. The existing issues, including dilemmas regarding the ethics of genetic testing, value-based genetic data, the requirement of healthcare infrastructure to accommodate the development of pharmacogenomes-based drug treatments are also mentioned in the review. In addition, this paper will identify emerging trends in pharmacogenomics, that is, development of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), geneediting tools, and their effect on drug discovery and precision medicine. Finally pharmacogenomics has the potential to close the gap between genetic variation and efficacy of drugs resulting in safer, more effective and personalised drug therapies.