page_title: Pharmacogenomics
section_title: Challenges
hierarchical_section_title: Pharmacogenomics / Challenges
caption_attribution_description: English: Consecutive phases and associated challenges in Pharmacogenomics.
context_page_description: Pharmacogenomics is the study of the role of the genome in drug response. Its name reflects its combining of pharmacology and genomics. Pharmacogenomics analyzes how the genetic makeup of an individual affects his/her response to drugs. It deals with the influence of acquired and inherited genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating gene expression or single-nucleotide polymorphisms with pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The term pharmacogenomics is often used interchangeably with pharmacogenetics. Although both terms relate to drug response based on genetic influences, pharmacogenetics focuses on single drug-gene interactions, while pharmacogenomics encompasses a more genome-wide association approach, incorporating genomics and epigenetics while dealing with the effects of multiple genes on drug response.
  Pharmacogenomics aims to develop rational means to optimize drug therapy, with respect to the patients' genotype, to ensure maximum efficiency with minimal adverse effects. Through the utilization of pharmacogenomics, it is hoped that pharmaceutical drug treatments can deviate from what is dubbed as the "one-dose-fits-all" approach.
context_section_description: Although there appears to be a general acceptance of the basic tenet of pharmacogenomics amongst physicians and healthcare professionals, several challenges exist that slow the uptake, implementation, and standardization of pharmacogenomics. Some of the concerns raised by physicians include:
  Limitation on how to apply the test into clinical practices and treatment;
  A general feeling of lack of availability of the test;
  The understanding and interpretation of evidence-based research; and
  Ethical, legal and social issues.
  Issues surrounding the availability of the test include:
  The lack of availability of scientific data: Although there are considerable number of DME involved in the metabolic pathways of drugs, only a fraction have sufficient scientific data to validate their use within a clinical setting; and
  Demonstrating the cost-effectiveness of pharmacogenomics: Publications for the pharmacoeconomics of pharmacogenomics are scarce, therefore sufficient evidence does not at this time exist to validate the cost-effectiveness and cost-consequences of the test.
  Although other factors contribute to the slow progression of pharmacogenomics (such as developing guidelines for clinical use), the above factors appear to be the most prevalent.
caption: Consecutive phases and associated challenges in Pharmacogenomics.[58]
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