FDA OFFICIALS MAKE CASE FOR PERSONALIZED MEDICINE

The use of genetic testing to develop personalized dosing for medicines can save lives and potentially billions of dollars, a group of FDA officials says.

The agency officials recently conducted a case study of the anticoagulant warfarin to determine whether genetic testing would allow for more accurate dosing of the drug. The report, "Health Care Savings from Personalized Medicine Using Genetic Testing: The Case of Warfarin," found significant health and monetary benefits from the approach.

According to the study, genetic testing resulted in more optimal dosing of the drug, which could help Americans avoid 85,000 serious bleeding events and 17,000 strokes annually.

The study was published Nov. 3 by the American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Institution Joint Center for Regulatory Studies.

The report is available at www.aei-brookings.org/admin/authorpdfs/page.php?id=1337 (http://www.aei-brookings.org/admin/authorpdfs/page.php?id=1337).