In the current study from the National Institutes of Health’s Implementing Genomics in Practice (IGNITE) Network, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and
other sites throughout the country analyzed medical outcomes in 1,815
patients who had genetic testing at the time of their cardiac procedure.
The testing allows physicians to pinpoint the best anti-clotting
medication for each patient.
The study reported significant results: About 60 percent of
patients with the genetic deficiency were given a different, more
effective medication. Using the genetic data to guide changes in therapy
reduced the percentage of deaths, heart attacks or strokes by nearly
half compared with those who continued taking clopidogrel, the
researchers found. Among those who had the genetic deficiency and
continued taking clopidogrel, 8 percent experienced one of those
complications.
“We saw significantly fewer adverse events among patients who were
switched to an alternative drug,” said Larisa Cavallari, Pharm.D.,
director of the Center for Pharmacogenomics at the University of Florida
College of Pharmacy who led the multi-institutional study.
Earlier this year, UPMC Presbyterian became one of the first
medical centers in the country to make this test available for patients
as part of the PreCISE-Rx (Pharmacogenomics-guided
Care to Improve the Safety and Effectiveness of Medications)
initiative. Approximately 10 percent of the study population was
analyzed by the team at Pitt and UPMC, one of the affiliates in the
IGNITE Network.
“This study is a major step forward as it shows applying
pharmacogenomics to achieve a precision medicine approach in cardiac
stent patients can provide significant benefits,” said Philip Empey,
Pharm.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacy and therapeutics at the
Pitt School of Pharmacy and leader of the Pitt team.
PreCISE-Rx is a leading initiative of the Institute for Precision Medicine (IPM), a joint effort by UPMC and Pitt to move biomedical research into personalized well-being and clinical care.
“The success of PreCISE-Rx demonstrates that the IPM is
well-positioned to dramatically improve the standard of care through
precision medicine by taking advantage of the world-class clinical and
research expertise in Pittsburgh,” said Adrian Lee, Ph.D., professor of
pharmacology and chemical biology at Pitt, and director of the Women’s
Cancer Research Center, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.
Other institutions that participated in the clopidogrel research
were the University of North Carolina, the University of
Maryland-Baltimore, the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Vanderbilt
University Medical Center, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Indiana
University-Indianapolis, Sanford Health, Duke University and the
University of Pennsylvania.