How will drug and IVD development benefit from pharmacogenomics?
Bethesda, MD Dr. Steven H.Y. Wong: Since I am not in the drug development sector, I would only be able to comment from what I learnt from attending meetings as well as reading journals. Thus, I would like to qualify my answer with asking help from colleagues from Pharma. As a lab person, I would feel more at ease to comment on the IVD development benefits. Firstly, drug development – Drugs have been developed with marketing to as a large population as possible. Thus, factors, including genetic, which might result in market segmentation, might have a negative impact in the drug discovery and development process. For example, if the drug candidates are shown to be metabolized by polymorphic enzymes, the risk of poor metabolizers to experience adverse drug reactions is correspondingly higher. That drug candidate, as a result, might not be considered favorably in the past. However, more recent drug approval such as Strattera for the treatment of ADHD, has recognized the drug’s desirable ph
