In fact, the technology is already being used in some countries for certain illnesses. It will make the use of medications both safer and more effective, and also increase cost-effectiveness from the point of view of avoiding adverse drug reactions, or side effects. Such bad reactions, Smith says, injure millions of people a year and kill hundreds of thousands. Whereas if you are a rapid destroyer of the medicine, then you are quite likely receiving doses that are not appropriate. Further, he says, some drugs are only effective when the patient has certain genes that produce specific receptors.
Receptors are the place where drugs act.
Genetic testing can determine whether a patient has the proper receptors and if he or she metabolizes a certain drug quickly, slowly, normally, or not at all. Ira Herskowitz, PhD, says researchers also want to tailor drugs to fit specific diseases. Women whose cancer is due to their body's overproduction of a protein called HER - 2 can be treated with certain drugs that affect this process, he says. Herskowitz is a professor of genetics at the School of Medicine at the University of California in San Francisco. Herskowitz adds that pharmacogenetics will also help reduce serious interactions between drugs in the future.