US pharmacies broaden access to pharmacogenetic tests
Malorye Allison
Medco Health Solutions, the pharmacy services manager, bolstered its commitment to personalized medicine in February, with the acquisition of DNA Direct, a San Francisco-based genomic medicine company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Medco of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, has now incorporated more than 2,000 genetic and molecular tests into its books. The aim is to become a one-stop health service shop aimed at helping physicians and payors better match individuals to therapeutics and improve clinical outcomes and save money. But whether personalized medicine can actually cut costs, and whether pharma companies will remain on the sidelines now that pharmacy services firms are pushing to control when and how drugs are used, is yet to be seen.
Rest of the article, which I can't post for copyright reasons, can be found at the source.
I'm back! My quals have been completed and passed!
I'm skeptical when it comes to personalized medicine through simple genetic testing. Generally speaking, these genetic tests can only account for a small percentage of response variability in patients. This is likely because there are simply too many genes to account for--not only genes that are disease markers, but also those for metabolizing enzymes. See tamoxifen and CYP2D6 expression for one of the more interesting case studies. Genetic tests have been used for dosing Warfarin, another metabolism-sensitive drug, with only minor success. Still, making the technology more readily available to the public will certainly lead to its improvement.
Medco Health Solutions, the pharmacy services manager, bolstered its commitment to personalized medicine in February, with the acquisition of DNA Direct, a San Francisco-based genomic medicine company. The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Medco of Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, has now incorporated more than 2,000 genetic and molecular tests into its books. The aim is to become a one-stop health service shop aimed at helping physicians and payors better match individuals to therapeutics and improve clinical outcomes and save money. But whether personalized medicine can actually cut costs, and whether pharma companies will remain on the sidelines now that pharmacy services firms are pushing to control when and how drugs are used, is yet to be seen.
Rest of the article, which I can't post for copyright reasons, can be found at the source.
I'm back! My quals have been completed and passed!
I'm skeptical when it comes to personalized medicine through simple genetic testing. Generally speaking, these genetic tests can only account for a small percentage of response variability in patients. This is likely because there are simply too many genes to account for--not only genes that are disease markers, but also those for metabolizing enzymes. See tamoxifen and CYP2D6 expression for one of the more interesting case studies. Genetic tests have been used for dosing Warfarin, another metabolism-sensitive drug, with only minor success. Still, making the technology more readily available to the public will certainly lead to its improvement.