UK Research & Innovation: Gene Mapping Will Reduce Fatal Drug Interactions in Older People

SWINDON, England, June 18 (TNSRes) -- The UK Research and Innovation issued the following news release on June 17, 2021:

New software will help reduce adverse drug reactions thanks to a joint investment of pound sterling 2 million from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Legal & General.

Nearly half of older people in the UK take five or more medicines. This is associated with falls and cognitive impairment and in the most extreme cases, death, often because not everyone reacts to drugs, particularly multiple drugs, in the same way.

Power of pharmacogenetics

Funded under UKRI's Healthy Ageing Challenge, the software, being developed by digital health company Congenica, will harness the power of pharmacogenetics. How an individual's genes influence their response to drugs - to improve the safety and effectiveness of drug treatment, particularly for people taking multiple medicines.

Healthy Ageing Pharmacogenetics and Polypharmacy will assess the health and economic benefit of pharmacogenetic analysis in general practice for patients over 50 years of age taking multiple medicines.

It will then use the results to create clinical decision software that uses that pharmacogenetics data. The software will alert doctors to the risks of prescribing specific combinations of medicines for individuals, so they can look at alternative medications or doses, to reduce that risk.

Funding available

As part of the Healthy Ageing Challenge, UKRI provides funding alongside private investment in business-led research and development. Using this co-investment, businesses can produce and market innovations for healthy ageing that can be adopted at scale.

A total of pound sterling 29 million in government grants, together with aligned co-investment from private investors, will be available until 2024 for projects of up to pound sterling 3 million in eligible costs.

Reducing adverse drug reactions

George MacGinnis, Healthy Ageing Challenge Director at UKRI, said:

"Improving our understanding of how medicines interact will make a huge difference to the lives of older people, who are much more likely to be taking five or more medications at any one time. Congenica's innovation aims to help to reduce avoidable adverse drug reactions which are directly responsible for over 700 deaths per year in the UK, with a world-wide potential to save many times that amount."

Helping people live longer

Dr Sam Roberts, MD of Health and Care for Legal & General Retail Retirement, said:

"Our investment in Congenica is a perfect example of our work to help people live longer, happier and healthier lives. This software could greatly improve outcomes for the large number of patients who take multiple medicines."

Pharmacogenomic analysis

Dr David Atkins, Chief Executive Officer, Congenica, said:

"The promise of pharmacogenomics has been on the horizon for a number of years and it is incredibly exciting to be working with UK Research and Innovation and Legal & General to develop practical systems that can be used to deliver routine pharmacogenomic analysis. For Congenica, this is an important realization of our vision to provide genomics to maintain health and wellness, as well as to characterize and manage disease."