PharmD and Pharmacogenomics

[Spartan676]

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what will be the impact of pharmacogenomics on future clinical pharmacists?

 

[jdpharmd?]

what will be the impact of pharmacogenomics on future clinical pharmacists?

Interesting question... is that your admissions essay topic?

 

[SynergeticSteve]

Very interesting topic...i had an interview with a faculty member who was doing research in the pharmacogenomic field. IMO, the role of this field was two-fold:

1. It will allow clinical pharmacists to tell whether or not CURRENT drugs will be effective on the patient. Blood samples will be referenced against a database of patients (i.e. taking into consideration ethnicity, gender, etc.) and give you a percent efficacy. This will have drastic effects on how pharmacists can specifically tailor drug therapy to our patients (imagine increasing 25% effectiveness to 95% effectiveness)

2. It will help phamacologists (those with Ph.D's in pharmacology) and pharmaceutical companies to pinpoint problem areas and develop more effective drugs in the FUTURE (i.e. suppose a CURRENT drug only reacts to a receptor specific to ethnicity A but not ethnicity B, they can develop similar NEW drugs that will be just as effective on ethinicity B).

This technology is being developed as we speak, so I suggest that any of you interested in pharmacogenomics to attend a school with a focus and research in this field.

 

[Spartan676]

in response to jdpharmD

no, it was not an essay topic. I just got interested about the subject when I read an article about how each individuals genetics can be a factor in determining which medicines can be effective in curing diseases.

CLICK ON THE LINK AND READ THE ARTICLE
http://www.rd.com/common/nav/index.jhtml?articleId=9525347&channelId=1&subChannelId=7

 

[Hirlemad]

Steve, don't forget it may help Pharma companies get PAST drug candidates through FDA approval. i.e. It worked great in 50% of patients but did nothing in the others, to which the FDA will say "thumbs down." However reanalyze the data with genetic profiles and all the sudden it is a blockbuster wonder drug for those with the right allele. There will be many drugs that will go from the lab trashbin to great sellers.

This will be the first major use IMO

 

[SynergeticSteve]

Hirlemad, very true, this technology can help push those PAST drug candidates into possible wonder drugs. Anyone thinking of going this route (pharmacogenomics used in phama companies) in their pharmacy career? Just curious.

 

[bananaface]

I don't know if low efficacy is as much of a problem in the drug approval process as signs of toxicity exhibited by slow or non-metabolizers. There are plenty of drugs out there with perfectly crappy efficacy levels. PenLac comes to mind.

If signs of toxicity were observed pre-market, the chance that we are going to be able to sort out genotypes in the trial population aren't that great, especially if it has been awhile. We would have a better chance of getting enough people willing to be genotyped after using a drug released to and then pulled from the market. Maybe we will get things like Redux?, and Pondimin? back onto the market. 🙄

Here is a link to a lecture on pharmacogenomics that I found using Google. It is from the University of Michigan. http://www-personal.umich.edu/~grosania/lecture2.pdf

 

[lord999]

Pharmacogenomics not only is about typing and explaining different metabolisms, it theoretically could change the fundamentals pharmacology.

Imagine that we could design mRNA to directly suppress transcription for the angiotensin-converting enzyme

Or design an inefficient protein synthesis for S. aureus pencillinase, making MRSA targetable with B-lactams.

Or introduce into humans the exon capable of synthesizing ascorbic acid like the rest of the mammals.

There's some real hope that technologies developed by pharmacogenomics will augment or prove superior to the pharmacological treatment of disease.

 

[Oneday_9]

Pharmacogenomics is definitely the field that got me interested in pharmacy, so that's where I plan to do research when I am at UCSF. All the reasons for it being such an amazing field are listed above.

It will bring individualized medicine or genetically tailored medications to the general population, and definitely make good on why sequencing the human genome held such promise for future therapies. The guess work of prescribing (which beta blocker or any antihypertensive, or which antidepressant (possibly), etc.) could be lessened, allowing the pharmacist to make specific recommendations to physicians (if this responsbility falls on the pharmacist).

There is one good text I know of out there:

Pharmacogenomics: Social, Ethical, and Clinical Dimensions
by Mark A. Rothstein (Editor)

I briefly read through this for a paper I wrote this spring, it lays out the scope of the technology and its impact on clinical trails, drug discovery, and even economic impact by it significantly decreasing costs not only to specific patients but to the greater society. It also goes into the challenges that lay ahead.

Here's a clinical review of pharmacogenomics that goes into some detail and knowledge we already have:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/reprint/320/7240/987.pdf


Anyways, it gets me excited about the future when I read these possibilities.