GoingToMeet

Adverse drug reactions are a major problem for healthcare services, the pharmaceutical industry and regulators. This has been highlighted recently with some high-profile drug withdrawals and regulatory decisions. There is an urgent need to develop strategies to reduce the burden of adverse drug reaction – this needs to apply to both drug development (to reduce the rate of attrition) and during clinical use (to reduce patient morbidity, mortality, costs to healthcare, and drug withdrawals). Although there are many factors involved in the causation of adverse drug reactions, and hence in the processes that will be needed to improve drug safety, pharmacogenomics is an important technology that could provide major benefits. The promise of pharmacogenomics in preventing adverse drug reactions has already been witnessed through studies on glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and haemolysis associated with antimalarials, TPMT testing and 6-mercaptopurine toxicity and HLA-B*5701 genotyping and abacavir hypersensitivity. The ESF-UB Conference on Pharmacogenomics will concentrate on adverse drug reactions this year, providing an interactive forum for both senior and junior researchers to learn about the latest developments in safety pharmacogenomics.