The Cost of Ignoring Pharmacogenomics: A U.S.Health Economic Analysis of Preventable Statin and Antihypertensive Induced Adverse Drug Reactions

Abstract

The problem of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) remains a major issue to the U.S. healthcare system whereby incidences of
adverse drug reactions increase among patients who use statins and antihypertensive drugs. These drug categories are crucial
in treating cardiovascular risk conditions but are also known to cause ADRs that are most commonly preventable and result in
elevated levels of healthcare utilization, poor adherence to the drugs, as well as diminished patient outcomes. PGx can reduce the
frequency of side effects by taking into consideration the genetic entities that govern them by prescribing personalized medicine.
This research provides a health economics of price issues when pharmacogenomic-knowledge is ignored during prescription
of statins and antihypertensive. The given decision-analytic structure was built to determine the number of preventable ADRs
annually and the direct medical expenses prior to the current prescribing habits and after the implementation of the routine of
PGx-guided therapy. The analysis considered the gene-drug interactions that had already determined clinical significance and
factored in hospitalization rates, emergency visits and productivity loss due to ADRs.
Results show that failure to prescribe in a PGx-informed manner leads to more than 250,000 unnecessary ADRs per year costing
\$1.3 billion in unnecessary healthcare expenditures. The findings help to guide on the economic effectiveness and clinical
utility of the use of the PGx testing in cardiovascular practice. By identifying patients at a genetic risk in advance, the incidence
of ADR can be decreased to a huge extent, and the therapeutic results can be enhanced, as well as the overall effectiveness
of the healthcare provided to the population can be improved.