Investigation into pharmacogenetics announced by Royal Society
Tony Moffat, chief scientist at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, has welcomed a year-long study
into pharmacogenetics launched this week by some of the UK’s leading scientists. The investigation will be carried out by a working party set up by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science.
Professor Moffat is encouraged by the announcement because of the kudos
associated with an inquiry by the Royal Society. He added: “Pharmacists
cannot afford to ignore pharmacogenetics. The pharmaceutical industry
has been involved in this kind of work for years but we haven’t
yet seen any new products with pharmacogenetic tests associated with
them.”
Professor Moffat predicted that patients with cancer and those on anti-coagulants
such as warfarin would be the first to have their drugs tailor-made to
reflect their
genetic make up.
The Royal Society inquiry will be carried out by a six-person team of
academics headed by Sir David Weatherall from the Weatherall Institute
for Molecular Medicine at Oxford University. The Royal Society points
out that there have been some reservations about whether the technology
associated with pharmacogenetics will be able to deliver and whether
it would impact negatively on the health care system. Sir David said: “This
study will look at whether pharmacogenetics, the designing of drug treatments
based on a person’s genetic make-up, is a scientifically achievable
aim, be it in five, 10 or 25 years from now.
“Equally importantly it will look at whether health care systems
in the UK and elsewhere have the resources to implement such technologies
and
what the pharmaceutical industry’s assessment is of the significant
investment needed to try to develop them in the first place.”
The inquiry team is inviting organisations and individuals who want to
offer evidence to contact the Royal Society. Evidence has to be submitted
by 12 November.
Professor Moffat will deliver a lecture on pharmacogenetics at the British
Pharmaceutical Conference in Manchester next week. He recently chaired
a Department of Health working group deciding how £4m of funding
for pharmacogenetic
research should be spent (PJ, 26 June 2004, p792). |
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