Thus, side effects are estimated

Experts criticize genetic testing for tailor-made drugs

06/19/2014

Drugs do not work the same way in every human, so you may experience very different side effects. In order to find out which undesired drug effect a drug might have for the individual patient, it is possible to have a genetic test carried out. The Pharmacritic Drug and Health Journal „Good Pills - Bad Pills ", however, is skeptical of this method and doubts the need for the tests.

Less side effects and higher chance of success through testing?
The metabolism of every human being is genetically different - therefore, genetic information also plays a role in the way in which drugs work in the body, when they are taken up and then broken down again. For many people, therefore, it would probably be a pleasant idea to undergo a short genetic test in the pharmacy and on the basis of the results „customized“ Get drug. A preparation with fewer side effects and a higher chance of success. This option does not seem so far away, instead, according to the pharma-critical medical and health magazine „Good Pills - Poor Pills "(GPSP) pharmacies have already named tests „therapeutic safety“ offer, for example, for the heart medication „clopidogrel“.

Use in cancer therapy and HIV treatment makes sense
Behind the new tests, however, the magazine would have a completely different principle to those behind those that directly address the characteristics of a disease. For example, such tests could usefully be used in cancer therapy and HIV treatment, because there are already therapies that would only work if the patient has specific genetic characteristics. However, the new tests are about transport proteins that have nothing to do with the disease itself. Here, the focus would be on the question of how the respective active ingredient and various proteins in the body react to one another - with the aim of optimizing the drug treatment.

US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) bans testing in the US
But what benefit do the combination packages of test and medication have for the patient? Loud „Good pills - Bad pills "is questionable about the need for such a test - which the patient has to pay for himself." As the magazine reported in its issue 02/2014, the so-called "therapeutic breadth" of most medications is large enough that there are genetic differences Metabolism would not be central to the effect and possible side effects would be So the tests are therefore useless In the view of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) apparently, because this had already according to the magazine in November 2013 the company „23andMe“ prohibited the sale. The reason: Even after five years of marketing, 23andMe had not provided any evidence of the added value of the tests - moreover, among other things, there was a risk that people would be able to dispose of an important drug on their own initiative, out of concern that it would not fit with their genes.

So far, tests are only used by the providers
Accordingly, should be loud „Good Pills - Bad Pills "tests for „customized medicines“ from a patient's point of view are considered critical - even if the decoding of genetic material in general „without doubt“ would open up new diagnostic possibilities, be it in the field of paternity testing or hereditary diseases, for example. „The increasingly expensive tests for the genetic analysis of personal drug metabolism have a serious scientific background, but their validity does not improve diagnosis and therapy currently. For now, they only benefit one, namely the respective test providers“, so the criticism of GPSP. (No)