In the Works: IT-Enabled Prototype Psychiatric Pharmacogenomics Tool

Roche Diagnostics has announced that it is trying to develop an IT-enabled psychiatric pharmacogenomics tool, based on the AmpliChip, a technology that identifies slow and fast drug metabolizers. The company has teamed up with Mayo Clinic, Rochester to “harness Mayo Clinic’s extensive psychiatric and pharmacogenomic clinical expertise”:

Psychiatric consultants at the Mayo Clinic have been able to genotype their patients for the 2D6 gene and the 2C19 gene for about two years. During that time, they have learned that patients appreciate their ability to minimize the side effects of the psychotropic medications that are prescribed. The combination of the AmpliChip CYP450 test and this new IT-tool, when available, will extend to psychiatrists across the country. This may allow practicing psychiatrists to better select and dose their patients’ drugs.
In January 2005, Roche Diagnostics announced that its first microarray-based test, the AmpliChip CYP450 Test, had been cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for diagnostic use in the United States. That followed the announcement of September 2004, that the AmpliChip CYP450 Test has the CE mark (“Conformité Européene”), allowing the test to be used for diagnostic purposes in the European Union. The test, which is powered by Affymetrix microarray technology, analyses a patients Cytochrome P450 2D6 and 2C19 genotypes from genomic DNA extracted from a blood sample. Test results allow physicians to consider unique genetic information from patients in selecting medications and doses of medications for a wide variety of common conditions such as cardiac diseases, pain, and cancer.

The press release…
Flashback: AmpliChip