Nuffield Council on Bioethics consultation

The possibility of using genetic analysis to predict response to medicines has led some to make the optimistic claim that personalized medicine--"the right medicine, for the right patient, at the right dose"--will only be a matter of time. Indeed, pharmacogenetic tests could be one of the earliest practical applications that information from the Human Genome Project will have on our lives. Many patients experience side effects from medicines, and the use of pharmacogenetics in the drug discovery process has the potential to improve efficacy and safety of some treatments. However, both the research and the clinical applications raise ethical, legal, social and regulatory issues that need to be addressed before targeted prescription becomes reality. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics has established a Working Party to consider these issues and has recently issued a consultation document on the subject.