Science, medicine, and the future: Pharmacogenetics

Individual variation in response to drugs is a substantial clinical problem. Such variation ranges from failure to respond to a drug to adverse drug reactions and drug-drug interactions when several drugs are taken concomitantly. The clinical consequences range from patient discomfort through serious clinical illness to the occasional fatality. One UK study has suggested that about 1 in 15 hospital admissions are due to adverse drug reactions,1 and a recent US study estimated that 106 000 patients die and 2.2 million are injured each year by adverse reactions to prescribed drugs.2