Genelex Supports Pharmacogenetic Testing
Genelex CEO and founder Howard Coleman is making a strong push for patients to be tested for specific genes involved in the processing of drugs. In response to a recent FDA advisory panel recommendation to allow Pfizer to market Celebrex (celecoxib) for use in the treatment of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, he said:
…thousands of children have an inability to process Celebrex safely. A simple DNA test that tests for the CYP2C9 enzyme alerts parents and physicians that the drug could cause harm to the child.”
No medicine that could potentially harm patients should ever be prescribed without knowing how that individual processes the drug. It is time patients and parents responsibly determine how a drug will affect them before it is ever swallowed.
An estimated 5 percent of the total population has difficulties metabolizing Celebrex which could result in overdose. Celebrex has already been approved to treat osteoarthritis and adult rheumatoid arthritis without any requirement for prior DNA testing. But companies like Genelex and and DNA Direct hope to change that by offering direct-to-consumer pharmacogenetic testing.
Medical News Today, December 8, 2006
Technorati Tags: pharmacogenetics, genetics, genes, dna, genelex, direct to consumer dna tests, dna testing, howard coleman, dna direct, celebrex, celecoxib, cyp2c9, rheumatoid arthritis
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Check out what others are saying about this post...[...] And in a quote that makes an appropriate follow-up to my previous post today about pharmacogenetics, Dr. Thomas Insel, Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) said: This is the beginning of a new generation of studies to help clinicians personalize treatment. I predict that genomics will be an important tool for future psychiatrists treating people with depression just as it is being used today by oncologists selecting treatments for breast cancer or lymphoma. [...]
[...] Genelex [...]