Writing a prescription
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San Diego-based testing company Diagnomics announced it has entered a partnership with pharmacogenomics (PGx) knowledgebase company Translational Software Inc. (TSI). Under the partnership, Diagnomics will deploy TSI’s PGx technology to generate a report on a tested individual’s potential to respond to specific drugs, which drugs should be avoided, and how effective specific drugs will be in treating that patient’s condition.

“Our teams invested a tremendous amount of time and effort to ensure the report's validation and viability that pertain to the individual patient,” said Byung-In Lee, Ph.D., CEO of Diagnomics, in a press release. “We hope that the report will encourage more patients and doctors to put more emphasis on preventive care and personalized medicine.”

Diagnomics offers its genetic testing products and services direct to consumers and R&D services to pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies. It operates a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory providing genetic testing  services along with HIPAA-compliant cloud-based analysis solutions.

“The partnership between our companies is another step to help further expand the field of pharmacogenetics and make genomics a standard clinical practice across a broad range of medications and diseases,” said Don Rule, CEO of TSI. “The Diagnomics team has applied innovative strategies to make an expansive test panel both accessible and affordable for clinical use.”

The PGx report produced via the partnership will contain information on dosing advice that includes a list of potentially affected medications and their predicted efficacy. Also included are drug label citations, reference to relevant research as well as published treatment guidelines. In addition to the broader PGx reporting, the two companies will also develop specific reporting for pain, cancer, and cardiovascular medications.

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reports that over two million of patients are suffering from serious adverse drug reactions yearly and the estimate of the cost of drug-related morbidity and mortality is $136 billion annually, which is more than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care in the United States,” Min Seob Lee, Ph.D., chairman of Diagnomics noted. “By combining the power of the whole genome microarray with TSI's PGx knowledge base, Diagnomics' PGx solution will benefit the whole community from patients to healthcare providers and payers.”

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