PRESS RELEASE FROM CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS
(www.nature.com/clpt/)
This press release is copyrighted to Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
A PDF of the paper mentioned on this release can be found in the relevant journal's section of http://press.nature.com. Press contacts for the Nature journals are listed at the end of this release.
PLEASE CITE CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS AND THE CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY & THERAPEUTICS WEBSITE AS THE SOURCE OF THE FOLLOWING ITEM. IF PUBLISHING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A HYPERLINK TO www.nature.com/clpt/
Pharmacogenetics: Exploitation of race as a marketing tool?
DOI: 10.1038/sj.clpt.6100020
The obstacles facing the development of genetics-based personalized medicine are described online this week in Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics. Sandra Soo-Jin Lee highlights the problematic use of race and ethnicity as classification tools for genetically distinct populations.
Pharmacogenomics requires classifying people into populations based on genetics. Pharmaceutical companies and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) have already set a trajectory for the development of race-based drugs. But researchers and practitioners have no standard system to define race and ethnicity. Furthermore, the racial categories that exist do not fit neatly with the range of human genetic differences. Despite these problems, marketing medications to specific populations remains easy and attractive to the pharmaceutical industry. This raises several concerns over the exploitation of race as a marketing tool. Individuals will be led to believe that certain drugs are tailored to them in the absence of sufficient supporting scientific data.
The author argues that addressing the issue of the role of race in the search for effective drugs is critical to the development of pharmacogenomics.
Author contact:
Sandra Soo-Jin Lee (Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA, USA)
Tel: +1 650 498 7426; E-mail: [email protected]
Editorial contact:
Carrie Nathans (Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics)
Tel: +1 703 836 6981; E-mail: [email protected]
Media contacts:
Katherine Anderson (Assistant Press Officer, Nature London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4502; E-mail: [email protected]
Ruth Francis (Senior Press Officer, Nature London)
Tel: +44 20 7843 4562; E-mail: [email protected]
About Nature Publishing Group
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a division of Macmillan Publishers Ltd, dedicated to serving the academic, professional scientific and medical communities. NPG's flagship title, Nature, was first published in 1869. Other publications include Nature research journals, Nature Reviews, Nature Clinical Practice and a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. NPG also provides news content through [email protected] and scientific career information through Naturejobs.
NPG is a global company with headquarters in London and offices in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Tokyo, Paris, Munich, Hong Kong, Melbourne, Delhi, Mexico City and Basingstoke. For more information, please go to www.nature.com
