Tesis Biosciences Announces a Novel Pharmacogenomics Test Enabling Precise, Personalized Response to Wide Range of Pharmaceuticals

Tesis Biosciences, the leader in targeted genetic sequencing, has announced a new predictive genomic test that will allow physicians to more accurately identify appropriate drug therapies and dosages for patients suffering from hundreds of diseases and conditions. The new pharmacogenomics test will make drug therapy more precise, reduce the number of adverse drug reactions, and save millions in treatment costs by assessing how patients will metabolize drugs based on their genetic makeup, which can determine how effective the drug will be.

Approximately 70% of U.S. adults take at least one prescription medication per day and nearly a quarter of the population take four or more. Some of those medications are ineffective or even dangerous because they are prescribed in the wrong dosage or cannot be effectively metabolized by patients due to their individual genetic makeup.

“This is a game changer,” said Divyen H. Patel, Ph.D., chief research officer at Tesis Biosciences. “It removes the guesswork from deciding which drugs, in which dosage, will be most effective for patients, and allows for personalized drug therapies. Previously, dosage has often been decided on criteria no more sophisticated than a patient’s height and weight, often with harmful results.”

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a serious problem. According to some studies, there are more than 2.2 million serious ADRs among hospitalized patients, causing over 106,000 deaths annually. ADRs cause 1.3 million emergency department visits per year, with 350,000 patients each year requiring hospitalization for further treatment, according to the CDC.

The new Tesis test can predict patient interaction with thousands of drugs in dozens of classifications, medicine prescribed to treat such common diseases as cancer, depression, diabetes, high blood pressure, and chronic pain. This medical assay is the culmination of over ten years of research, data accumulation, and extensive advanced bioinformatics. The test uses millions of data points in a proprietary software platform to compare a patient’s genetic makeup to metabolize or clear specific drug types allowing more precise determination of compatibility and efficacy.

“This will help eliminate the problems of patients being prescribed too much or too little drug therapy or ineffective drugs,” added Patel. “This test can save millions in healthcare costs by allowing providers to determine from the start which drugs to prescribe and in what dosage, thus avoiding unnecessary and ineffective treatments and medications.”

Tesis will be applying for formal FDA approval of the test, which has already received Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments certification.