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EELS (Ethical, Economic, Legal & Social) Article

Pharmacogenomic testing: the cost factor

The Pharmacogenomics Journal volume 1, pages 171–174 (2001)Cite this article

A number of reports in the literature have characterized the clinical relevance of genetic variations on therapeutic response and outcomes to drugs.1,2,3,4,5,6,7 These and other reports support the general belief that genetic testing could be used to improve patient therapy.8,9,10 The urgency of moving in this direction has been further underscored by reports that adverse drug reactions add billions of dollars per year to our health care bill, and that over 100 000 patients per year may die from taking prescription medications properly.11,12 This has convinced many researchers that genetic tests could improve how drugs are selected and prescribed to patients, and that such tests should become clinically available for this purpose within the next 10–20 years. Beyond the ethical and legal questions surrounding genetic testing, the clinical use of patient genomic information to improve therapeutic treatment often ignores the most fundamental question about this technology—is it cost effective?

The clinical implementation of genomic testing hinges on answering a very simple question: ‘Under what condition(s)/situation(s) are the savings provided by a pharmacogenomic test greater than the cost of genetic test- ing?’ The answer to this question requires two pieces of information: (1) the cost of performing a genetic test; and (2) the savings that could be realized if genetic testing were employed in place of current clinical methods. When the savings realized are greater than the cost of performing the test, it makes economic sense to apply pharmacogenomic testing. If pharmacogenomic testing had been proven to save money by now, it would already be a routine clinical tool. It is the lack of adequate data to answer this simple question that has delayed the introduction of pharmacogenomic testing into therapeutic practice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Pharmacy, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

    P J Wedlund

  2. College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA

    J de Leon

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Correspondence to P J Wedlund.

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Wedlund, P., de Leon, J. Pharmacogenomic testing: the cost factor. Pharmacogenomics J 1, 171–174 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.tpj.6500033

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