ABSTRACT
It has long been recognized in clinical pharmacology that patients
often respond differently to the same drug, both in terms of efficacy
and in terms of toxicity. Such drug response heterogeneity in the
population limits clinical practice success and negatively impacts
the economic burden of health care, since it may lead to suboptimal
drug efficiency or even to toxicity. The latter contributes to the
emergence of severe adverse drug reactions (ADRs) that ultimately
might result even in drug removal from themarket [1-4]. Nowadays,
more than ever, it is well known that, at least in part, this variability
in pharmacological response is inherited. Genetic factors can
influence drug response at both levels of pharmacokinetics (PK) and
pharmacodynamics (PD), contributing to interindividual variability.
Consequently, within the scientific community and society, the
notion has been established that to understand the mechanisms
underpinning ADRs and also to empower drug delivery profiles,
the genetic nature of toxic reactions must be clearly deciphered
at the molecular level [5-9]. This is considered a major task in
modern pharmacology and therapeutics. Alternatively, but in a
complementary fashion, clinical pharmacology needs to confront
these challenges in away that drug prescription and delivery achieve
improved drug delivery outcomes for most, if not all, patients.
