Each year, prescribed pharmaceuticals benefit millions of people. This usually results in an improved quality of life, as in the case of arthritis medications or insulin, for example.

Prescription drugs can also save lives, many times over. Cardiac, statins, and anti-coagulating medications often mean the difference between life or death.

Dr. Devin Absher: “Genetic tests benefit the patient; they also benefit the health system and the employer who might be insuring that employee.”

Yet, despite the benefits, a medication that works well for one individual might be totally ineffective for someone else. In a worst-case scenario, certain medications can cause severe side effects, or they might even prove to be lethal.

Is there a way to bypass risky side effects or lack of efficacy in prescribed medications? Can the unwelcome, outside chance of a severe reaction be averted? If so, how?

Age, lifestyle, and health are all influencing factors in an individual’s response to drugs. However, genes play a significant role in that overall response. As part of the growing field of precision medicine, pharmacogenomics analyzes how genomes can influence an individual’s response to prescribed medications.

Until recently, drugs have been developed with a “one size fits all” approach. However, genes provide key blueprints for producing certain proteins in the body. By studying these genes, health care can be customized, with treatments and medications tailored to the individual.

“There’s a lot of interest in pharmacogenomics because it’s a fairly straightforward genetic test that can inform people about what drugs they may be taking they’re not metabolizing and that there may be better alternatives that they could take,” said Dr. Devin Absher, director of Genomic Health at HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology. “Genetic tests benefit the patient; they also benefit the health system and the employer who might be insuring that employee.”

“One of our missions is genomic health, it’s one of our four mission areas. We’ve been in the space of providing genetic testing to all sorts of people and groups for many years,” said Absher. “What’s changed recently is that we’ve have established something called the HudsonAlpha Health Alliance and that’s a program designed help outside groups to get access to HudsonAlpha expertise.”

Genomic testing in conjunction with drug therapies is still in its infancy. However, the field is quickly gaining traction.

There are more than 200 drugs on the market that have label information regarding pharmacogenomic biomarkers – measurable or identifiable genetic information that can be used to individually tailor the use of a drug. One good example is statin medications.

“There are people getting these tests back and finding out they’re on a statin that they metabolize either too rapidly or not rapidly enough,” said Absher. “You can change dosing, or you can move to statins that don’t have the same side effects, based on genetics.”

Progress in the field of pharmacogenomics is promising. Sometime soon, pharmacogenomics will be a major component of routine medical care.

“I think that it’s already happening,” said Absher. “In the ideal future, everybody will have had a lot of genetic testing done before they ever are prescribed a medication. And one of the benefits of getting these genetic tests is that it can form your healthcare for years to come. Even drugs you’re not on now but might be on later in life.

“There’s a real long-term benefit to an individual and to a population, to an employee group, or to a health system by integrating genetics into their health care.”