Medco Takes Prescribing Personal

By Gaudio, Thomas

Pharmacy benefit manager Medco Health Solutions, Inc. said last week it will team with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to study how people’s genes influence the effectiveness of prescription drugs.

Pharmacogenomics, often referred to as personalized medicine, could change how doctors prescribe medicine for all illnesses and conditions, said the Franklin Lakes-based company. The field is helping researchers to understand why a given drug may be less effective or have worse side effects in one person than another, according to the Mayo Clinic.

The research partnership between Medco and the FDA lasts through August 2010. Medco will report to the FDA on topics including prescription drug safety, doctors’ willingness to use genetic testing in prescribing and the usefulness of those tests.

Medco said pharmacoge- nomics could help lower costs and improve the quality of care by taking the guesswork out of prescribing. – Thomas Gaudio

Study could change prescribing approach.

Copyright Journal Publications Inc. Aug 25, 2008

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