When you look in the dictionary under ”drug intolerances and genes” you will find my name.

I have written widely about the effects that adverse drug reactions have had on my health. Simplistically, I have drug allergies and I am a poor metabolizer of CYP2D6 which means medicines that utilize this gene are toxic for me.

But a new world of pharmacogenomics has changed all of that making essential medicines available to me.

Pharmacogenomics is the branch of medicine that predicts an individual’s response to medicines before they take them.

It takes the guesswork out of the right medicine in the right dose for the individual.

Whilst there are many factors to safe medicines, pharmacogenomics is often overlooked, and yet has a profound impact on medicine safety.

So this is why it matters.

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