Title:Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics (U-PGx): The Time for Implementation is Now. An Horizon2020 Program to Drive Pharmacogenomics into Clinical Practice
VOLUME: 18 ISSUE: 3
Author(s):Erika Cecchin*, Rossana Roncato, Hendrik J. Guchelaar, Giuseppe Toffoli and for the Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics Consortium
Affiliation:Farmacologia Sperimentale e Clinica, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico, IRCCS, via F. Gallini, 2, 33081 Aviano, Pordenone, Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro Di Riferimento Oncologico- National Cancer Institute, 33081, Aviano, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Toxicology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Centro Di Riferimento Oncologico- National Cancer Institute, 33081, Aviano
Keywords:Europe, implementation, pharmacogenomics, precision medicine, pre-emptive testing.
Abstract:Although the clinical validity of a number of pharmacogenetic markers is nowadays a matter
of fact, and led authoritative scientific consortia as the Dutch Pharmacogenetic Working Group
(DPWG) and the Clinical Pharmacogenomics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) to publish pharmacogenetic
guidelines, the clinical implementation in real life remains challenging. Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics
(U-PGx) program is a coordinated effort that put together scientific and clinical expertise
in the pharmacogenomic field, to implement the pre-emptive pharmacogenomic approach in the clinical
practice in Europe, and to demonstrate its benefit in both patients’ clinical outcome and quality of
life, with an economic advantage for the healthcare system. The project is conceived as a clinical trial
that will compare 4,000 patients, pre-emptively genotyped for a panel of pharmacogenes included in
the DPWG guidelines, and treated accordingly, with 4,000 controls treated with the standard of care.
All the genetic data will be prospectively collected and fully embedded into the patient’s clinical record.
An electronic clinical decision support system will be developed to alert physicians and pharmacists
when a drug is being prescribed or dispensed to a patient with a risky genotype. U-PGx will test
and harmonize this approach in seven healthcare environments (The Netherlands, Spain, UK, Italy,
Austria, Greece, Slovenia) to set the basis for a future European healthcare system where an ‘effective
treatment optimization will be accessible to every European citizen’ (www.upgx.eu).
