Ahead of World Stroke Day, David Budd, CEO of genedrive plc, underscores the growing role of pharmacogenetics in personalised medicine and how its application can decrease the odds of secondary cerebrovascular disease.
Key insights:
- Routine use of pharmacogenetics in stroke patient management offers the best chance to guarantee efficacy of secondary prevention measures, avoiding thousands of unnecessary deaths every year.
- Clopidogrel is a single anti-thrombotic agent treatment for ischaemic stroke, but for those carrying CYP2C19*2 or CYP2C19*3 loss-of-function alleles, clopidogrel has no discernable clinical benefits.
- Customised treatment with clopidogrel or an alternative for those resistant to its effects, as guided by pharmacogenetics, could significantly reduce the risk of future cerebrovascular infarctions.
The value of pharmacogenetics in personalised medicine is indisputable. Few would argue against the merits of being able to confidently treat patients with the medications best suited to both their clinical requirements and their body’s genetic ability to respond appropriately to them. But sadly, the availability of pharmacogenetic testing – despite its myriad of benefits – is still to be realised, while sufferers of a variety of illnesses continue to receive suboptimal treatment, unbeknown to their care providers.