Pharmacogenomics involve studying how genes affect a person’s response to drugs. Using the information obtained from pharmacology and genomics, this emerging field of study is promising for development of effective, safe medications and doses tailored to a person’s genetic makeup.
To benefit BC communities, Professor Cory Nislow from UBC and Derek Desrosiers from BC Pharmacy Association are further extending their efforts from a previous Genome BC funded project to establish pharmacogenomic service in community pharmacy. Thus, based on the outcome of a phase 1 study, which involved development of robust operating procedures for sample collection, processing, and whole exome sequencing (WES), Phase 2 aims to take a significant step in translation of pharmacogenomic service from the research laboratory to the community pharmacy. The team will use WES data (without extracting diagnostic or prognostic information) from Phase 1 to assess patient responses to mental health, cardiac conditions and chronic pain medications. This will help providing actionable results (based on up-to-date CPIC guidelines) to the pharmacist for review with the patient and the prescriber (if appropriate). Medication queries will also be conducted on WES of participants from Phase 1 (with consent). The objective of Phase 2 is to: develop a standard, east-to-interpret report and system to store only the actionable results in an accessible portal available to the patient and their health-care providers; develop SOPs for the new processes and provide education and training to pharmacists, particularly focusing on privacy and ethics requirements needed for patient protection; work with benefits providers to determine the value of PGx testing; more broadly assess and define the proposition that community pharmacists are the best conduit to deliver pharmacogenomics outside of health-care institutions. Overall, successful deployment of the service will enable the project plant roots for pharmacogenomic services in BC – a significant step towards precision medicine.