Page 18 - Pharmaquest issue 1 2020

Personalized Medicine

Trishna Gurung

Batch 2016

Personalized Medicine is the tailoring
of medical treatment to the individual
characteristics of each patient.
The approach relies on scientific
breakthroughs in our understanding of
how a person’s unique molecular and
genetic profile makes them susceptible
to certain diseases. Scope and Advancement
Personalized medicine holds Prescription benefit management
promise for improving health care en- (PBM) have already been implemented
abling each patient to receive earlier by companies to offer genetic testing
diagnosis, risk assessments and op- as part of prescription filling process.
timal treatments while also lowering Pharmacogenomics testing is being
costs. used commercially foe some common-
Pharmacogenomics forms the basis of ly prescribed drugs such as warfarin to
personalized medicine. It is the science manage blood coagulation and tamox-
that studies how genetic variations ifen for cancer. Pharmacogenomics is
affect drug development. This seeks to still in its early stage so is the personal-
identify the variant genes affecting the ized medicine. Its adoption into clini-
response to drugs in individual pa- cal practice is comparatively slow.
tients and in so doing can identify dis- This field offers new opportunities for
ease susceptibility genes representing pharmacy graduates and other profes-
potential new drug targets. sionals. It also promises the revolution-
Impacts ary changes in health care systems.
-Shifting emphasis in medicine from
reaction to prevention.
-Enabling the selection of optimal
therapy and reducing trial and error
prescribing.
-Making use of drugs safer by avoiding
adverse drug reactions.

-Increasing patient compliance with
treatment
-Reducing the time and cost of clinical
trials.
-Reviving drugs that failed early in
clinical trials or on the market, based
on genomic advances.
-Drug work well for a selective group
within the general population.
-Reducing the overall cost of health
care. 8