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Patients could benefit from adjusting their medication based on genetic information

A quarter of patients received medications whose efficacy or safety could have been improved by considering the patient’s genome.

Professor Mikko Niemi’s research conducted a nationwide analysis that included all internal medicine and surgical patients in Finnish hospitals, as well as a group of university hospital patients for whom genetic data was available from the THL biobank.

The nationwide cohort included data from 1.4 million people in Finland obtained from THL-managed registries. Two years after hospitalisation, 60 per cent of patients had purchased a prescription medication for which genetic information is relevant.

According to Niemi, genetic information could be highly beneficial in drug treatment.

“Based on current research, many patients could benefit from adjusting their medication based on genetic information.”

If doctors had access to information about patients’ genetics, medication costs and significant adverse effects could often be reduced, and the number of days of sick leave would also decrease.

Niemi’s research group has used the computing services of Finland’s ELIXIR Node at CSC – IT Center for Science to analyse genetic data. Data management has made use of CSC’s sensitive data platform.

In the future, Europeans will have faster and more accurate diagnoses. Collected and analysed genomic data will enable better drug design and preventive treatments.

Niemi sees it as essential that researchers have access to such infrastructure.

“High-quality genomic data storage is crucial for future research. It ensures that new genetic factors influencing drug efficacy and safety can be identified and their impact can be assessed, and that they can ultimately be put into use.”

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