Matching drugs to DNA is ‘new era of medicine’

Some drugs are completely ineffective or become deadly because of subtle differences in how our bodies function.

The British Pharmacological Society and the Royal College of Physicians say a genetic test can predict how well drugs work in your body.

The tests could be available on the NHS next year.

Your genetic code or DNA is an instruction manual for how your body operates. The field of matching drugs to your DNA is known as pharmacogenomics.

It would have helped Jane Burns, from Liverpool, who lost two-thirds of her skin when she reacted badly to a new epilepsy drug.

She was put on to carbamazepine when she was 19. Two weeks later, she developed a rash and her parents took her to A&E when she had a raging fever and began hallucinating.

The skin damage started the next morning. Jane told the BBC:

“I remember waking up and I was just covered in blisters, it was like something out of a horror film, it was like I’d been on fire.”

Her epilepsy medicine caused Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which affects the skin and is far more likely to happen in people who are born with specific mutations in their genetic code.

Mrs Burns says she was “extremely, extremely lucky” and said she supports pharmacogenomic tests. “If it saves your life, then it’s a fantastic thing.”

Nearly everyone is affected

Jane’s experience may sound rare, but Prof Mark Caulfield, the president-elect of the British Pharmacological Society, said “99.5% of us have at least one change in our genome that, if we come across the wrong medicine, it will either not work or it will actually cause harm.”

  • More than five million people in the UK get no pain relief from codeine. Their genetic code does not contain the instructions for making the enzyme that breaks codeine down into morphine and without it, the drug’s a dud.
  • The genetic code of one in 500 people puts them at higher risk of losing their hearing if they take antibiotic gentamicin

Pharmacogenomics is already used for some medicines. In the past, 5-7 percent of people would have a bad reaction to the HIV drug abacavir and some died. Testing people’s DNA before prescribing the drug means the risk is now zero.

Scientists have looked at the 100 most prescribed drugs in the UK. Their report says we already have the technology to roll out genetic testing to guide the use of 40 of them.

The genetic analysis would cost about £100 and could be done using either a sample of blood or saliva.

Initially, the vision is to perform the test when one of the 40 drugs is prescribed. In the long term, the ambition is to test well ahead of time – possibly at birth if genetic testing of newborns goes ahead, or as part of a routine check-up in your 50s.

Precision

“We need to move away from ‘one drug and one dose fits all’ to a more personalised approach, where patients are given the right drug at the right dose to improve the effectiveness and safety of medicines,” said Prof Sir Munir Pirmohamed, from the University of Liverpool.

“What we’re doing is really going to a new era of medicine, because we’re all individuals and we all vary in the way we respond to drugs.”

He said that as we age and are prescribed more and more drugs, there’s a 70 percent chance that by the age of 70 you will be on at least one drug that is influenced by your genetic make-up.

Lord David Prior, the chairman of NHS England, said: “This will revolutionise medicine.”

He said pharmacogenomics “is the future” and “it can now help us to deliver a new, modern personalised healthcare system fit for 2022”.

See more here: bbc.co.uk

Header image: Healthline

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Comments (4)

  • Avatar

    QorpsE

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    Every pharmaceutical is synthetic, toxic, unnecessary and based on a fraudulent methodology for exploitative purposes for an industry that relies on sickness and belief so it perpetuates sickness and belief.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Richard Noakes

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    This Gene Therapy: Covid Vaccines are Gene Therapy after giving away millions of Taxpayers Money to expand production of Covid Jabs in the UK
    By The Exposé on April 1, 2022
    The UK Government has awarded a grant of nearly £16 million of hardworking tax payers money to a Chemical producing giant, under the premise that they will significantly increase production capacity of lipids which are an essential component in Covid-19 vaccines. But in doing so, the Government has been forced to admit that the Covid-19 injections are in fact gene therapy.
    A grant of £15.9 million has been awarded to chemical producer Croda International Plc (‘Croda’)” to increase the UK’s manufacturing capacity of speciality lipids, an essential ingredient in mRNA vaccines, the government has announced.
    This investment will enable Croda, a global market leader in the field, to significantly increase production capacity at its facility in Leek, Staffordshire.
    This will also allow them to increase both the range and volume of lipids it is able to produce in the UK, – particularly the mRNA lipid used in a number of Covid vaccines.
    From 2023, the expanded facility will be able to produce a sufficient volume of lipids for around 3 billion vaccine doses – an estimate based on the volume of lipids required to produce existing COVID-19 vaccines – a significant contribution to global lipid supply and future vaccine production.
    Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “The mRNA technology produced at this site has the potential to unlock the next generation of cutting-edge treatments for existing and new health threats”.
    Since the launch of the Covid-19 injection programme authorities and mainstream media have frequently stressed that the Covid-19 injections are just like any other traditional vaccines, and have denied that they are gene therapy. But for anyone interested in knowing what they were having injected into their bodies, all they had to do was carry out a quick google search to conclude that the authorities were lying.
    But now the UK Government has quietly admitted in their press release on the above that the Covid-19 injections are in fact gene therapy, clarifying that “lipids are an essential component in COVID vaccines as well as other gene therapies”.
    Source
    The mRNA technology in the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 injections had never before been authorised for use in the general population, and even now it is only temporarily authorised for emergency use.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Tom

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    NO THANKS!. I am never going to trust these big pharma bozos with anything. Most of their drugs are useless and very harmful and now we are going to let these freaks alter our DNA for some nefarious purpose? I think once your DNA is played with, it never goes back to the way it was.

    We have heard about the new eras of medicine and miracle cures over the last 70 years…all mostly false and very destructive. This is so they call market some new technology at outrageous prices to ensure greater profits for them…not for you. Their drugs are still going to hasten your demise.

    Reply

  • Avatar

    Mark Tapley

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    Perhaps a few rare harmful mutations can be detected with this technology but the main purpose is to reinforce the allopathic germ theory model of an external invader from which everyone requires routine monitoring and big Pharma guidance. Improper diagnosis and medical treatment is already the second or third biggest cause of death and would be no. 1 if most of it were not covered up. The current CDC prescribed treatment of the deadly rimdesivir and ventilators after giving the fake PCR test for a non existent virus is a good example. Average payment to hospitals for conducting this scam is ap. 130,000 dollars. Allopathic medicine has always been about treating symptoms for maximum profit Now we see an even more sinister motive as it can also now be used as a method of control under the facade of a pathogenic emergency.

    In the late 1800’s heart disease (myocardial infarction) was rare in the U.S. as were cancer, diabetes and Macular degeneration. Now these conditions are epidemic. These are also all big profit centers for the medical racket. Big Pharma cannot fix these metabolic lifestyle conditions nor do they want to. It is way past time for individuals to take responsibility for their own health. No one can do it for them.


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM

    Reply

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