ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how governments may incorporate genomic science in public health policy-making processes. It describes the ways in which medical researchers, doctors, and health economists have attempted to incorporate genomic data for the purposes of public health policies in Singapore. Singapore has joined other nation-states in shaping the framework of genomic research. Governments may be interested in pharmacogenomic studies of drug toxicity and adverse drug reactions because patients suffering from severe toxicity can drain public health resources. The presence of the gene variants merely suggests increased risks of adverse reactions to Irinotecan, but is by no means definitive. Researchers and health economists in Singapore are certainly not alone in relying on existing ethnically labeled population-level data. Melaka then sought to assert its leadership in the Melayu world, inheriting the lifestyle and methods of governance of southeastern Sumatra and Western Borneo.
