Pharmacogenetics research funding announced
Details of six pharmacogenetic research projects that will share £4m of funding were announced by health minister Lord Warner this week. The cash allocation is part of the £50m
government strategy revealed last year in its genetics
White Paper “Our inheritance, our future — realising the potential of genetics in the NHS” (PJ, 28 June 2003, p881).
Lord Warner said: “While research in this area is still in its
early stages, pharmacogenetics has enormous potential to improve the
effectiveness of the treatment that patients receive and, more importantly,
could save lives by identifying those patients who,
because of their genetic make-up, are likely to react badly to certain
medicines.”
Tony Moffat, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s chief scientist,
was chairman of the advisory panel that recommended which projects should
be funded.
Researchers at St James University Hospital in Leeds are to receive £589,711
to develop a screening test for all patients requiring surgery under
general anaesthetic which will identify those at risk from developing
malignant hypothermia — a potentially fatal reaction to common
anaesthetics.
Salford Royal Hospital is to receive £781,196 to examine whether
a patient’s
genetic make up influences the triggering of side effects to azathioprine.
Researchers at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne will be given £637,550
to investigate whether genes play a part in determining whether a patient
is susceptible to liver injury as a result of
taking penicillin and anti-tuberculosis
medicines.
The University of Liverpool is to receive the largest grant, £842,192,
to consider if
genetics and the environment influence whether a patient will suffer
from bleeding when they are prescribed warfarin.
Development of a test to help predict a patient’s response to the
epilepsy drug clobazam being undertaken by researchers at the Walton
Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, also at the University of Liverpool,
receives a cash boost of £776,554.
And researchers at University College London have been given £529,857
to look into anthracyclines, which can improve prognosis in cancer patients
but can also cause
severe heart damage.
Commenting on the awards, Professor Moffat said: “The important
thing is for this cutting edge research to bring genetics knowledge and
pharmacokinetics to the treatment of patients. It is moving pharmacogenetics
from the laboratory to the clinic.”
Correction
The main recipient of Government funding for a project to examine whether a person’s genetic make up influences adverse reactions to azathioprine is the University of Manchester not Salford Royal Hospital. Also, the test being developed at St James’s University Hospital, Leeds is for malignant hyperthermia not hypothermia. |
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