Personalizing Drug Therapy

A bedside genetic test can predict which drugs will work best in heart patients. About 200 people were in the study. All of them had angioplasty to open a clogged artery. Half received a genetic test to see if they would respond to the drug clopidogrel. People who would not respond were given other drugs. The other half were all given standard treatment with aspirin and clopidogrel. The bedside genetic test identified all of the people who would not respond to clopidogrel. In the other group, 30% did not respond to clopidogrel. This is the first study to validate a bedside genetic test for personalization of drug therapy. It was published in the Lancet March 29. HealthDay News wrote about it.