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Analyzing the clinical data from the Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative, TPMI Consortium researchers led by IBMS’s Drs. Chun-Yu Wei and Pui-Yan Kwok studied genetic risk factors’ effect on one’s response to commonly used medications. In their paper, the TPMI team found that nearly all 486,956 TPMI participants carried at least one genetic variant that could affect drug response. Detailed analyses of four gene-drug pairs affecting those taking azathioprine (NUDT15/TPMT), clopidogrel (CYP2C19), statins (ABCG2/CYP2C9/SLCO1B1), and NSAIDs (CYP2C9), validated previous findings that genetic risk factors are significantly associated with drug related adverse events or ineffectiveness, but the excess risks were small. These results illustrate the complexity of implementing pharmacogenetics in clinical practice and the need for integrative approaches to optimize precision medicine.

The research was published on July 9, 2025, in Nature Communications and funded by Academia Sinica and the NSTC.