Pharmacogenetics--pivotal to the future of the biopharmaceutical industry.

1359-6446/06/$ see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.drudis.2010.03.004 The inaugural London Genetics Pharmacogenetic Conference, ‘Harnessing Genetic Knowledge To Improve Clinical Development and Patient Care’, was held last autumn in the UK. With speakers from the biopharmaceutical industry, academia, regulators and health care organizations, the place of pharmacogenetics in the future of drug development was debated. Pharmacogenetics is the study of how our genetic make-up affects our response to drugs and leads to the area of stratified (or personalized) medicine, in which drugs are given to those who are expected to be responders or not suffer from side-effects. The discipline is all about finding the right drug for the right patient at the right dose.