“Pharmacogenomics holds great promise to shed scientific light on the often risky and costly process of drug development, and to provide greater confidence about the risks and benefits of drugs in specific populations. Pharmacogenomics is a new field, but we intend to do all we can to use it to promote the development of medicines. By providing practical guidance on how to turn the explosion of pharmacogenomic information into real evidence on new drugs, we are taking an important step toward that goal.”

“Without (Pharmacogenetics) testing, neither you nor your doctor knows exactly how you’ll react to the medication. It may not work for you, or you may have serious side effects such as bleeding. You might have to try different doses — or even different medications — before finding a treatment that works for you.
Pharmacogenomics speeds up that process. Before you take a single dose of medication, you can have a test to see how you’re likely to respond to the medication. “

“The current gap between current practice and that which will soon be enabled by new personalized medicine technologies could arguably mean the difference between life and death for thousands of patients per year. Physicians are likely to be hauled into court and called to account for this discrepancy unless steps are taken to provide physicians with better education and guidelines to integrate the new data and technologies into their clinical practice. The window of opportunity to act is short. Once the litigation snowball starts to roll, it will quickly become unstoppable.”