Personalized Medicine: A Potential Game Changer, Someday

There’s a lot of talk about the potential for personalized medicine to lower drug costs.

Genetic testing has been around for a few years, and it’s being used to customize drug regimens for patients by better understanding how patients metabolize drugs. But proponents of individualized medicine are urging patience.

Konstantinos Lazaridis, MD, associate director of the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, says that genetic testing is readily available and relatively inexpensive, costing between $300 and $400 per patient, although it’s not yet covered by insurance.

“It provides information about how you metabolize more than 300 medications that are commonly used in practice,” Lazaridis says. “What we have not proven is whether this reduces...