Pharmacogenomics (PGx), the study of genetic variability affecting an individual’s response to a drug, is increasingly becoming a part of a prescriber’s everyday practice.

A new report has recommended that as pharmacogenomic testing is rolled out, “a pharmacogenomics consult service should be developed within each integrated care system (ICS) led by a multidisciplinary team comprising clinical pharmacologists, pharmacists and other interested specialists”.¹

The report goes on to say: “Given that most of the prescribing occurs in primary care, it is important that GPs and pharmacists are considered an essential component of this multidisciplinary pharmacogenomics service.”

Personalised prescribing: using pharmacogenomics to improve patient outcomes was published in March 2022 by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and the British Pharmacological Society (BPS) and endorsed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS).

The RPS in Scotland sees pharmacists “leading the development of newer therapeutic areas such as pharmacogenomics.” It’s document, Pharmacy 2030: a professional vision (published in January), hopes that by 2030 there will be “many more innovative treatments, with approaches currently considered to be novel – including pharmacogenomics, personalised medicines and advanced therapy (interventional) medicinal products (such as gene therapies) – all becoming mainstream”.²