Lecturer in the School of Life Sciences Manuel Corpas has written an article for Knowable Magazine on the importance of equity in personalised medicine and highlighting the extensive bias in medical studies toward men of European origin.
Manuel Corpas notes that while genetic differences lead to different reactions to drugs, almost all medical research is conducted on men with Northern European heritage. He uses the example of warfarin, a leading blood-thinning drug used for cardiovascular disease. Despite its wide use, it is one of the top four drugs in South Africa that causes adverse drug reactions that lead to hospitalisation.
Corpas writes: “A bias in our current understanding of the genetics of different populations means that some people would be helped far more than others by genetically informed personalized medicine. As a bioinformatician, I am now focusing my attention on gathering the statistics to show just how biased medical research data are.
There are problems across the board, ranging from which research questions get asked in the first place, to who participates in clinical trials, to who gets their genomes sequenced. The world is moving toward “precision medicine,” where any individual can have their DNA analysed and that information can be used to help prescribe the right drugs in the right dosages. But this won’t work if a person’s genetic variants have never been identified or studied in the first place.”
He emphasises how powerfully genetics can affect medicine and the lack of diversity in genome-wide association studies, which compare many different genomes from many to find genetic markers associated with specific phenotypes or disease risks. This lack of diversity is also present in direct-to-consumer genetic sequencing services like 23andMe.
Corpas argues that while there are now efforts being made to correct this bias, more work needs to be done. He concludes: “The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 16 December 1966, recognizes everyone’s rights to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress. But that is not happening yet. We need to ramp up representation in genetic and medical studies to ensure fair treatment for all.”
Read the article, We urgently need data for equitable personalized medicine, on the Knowable Magazine website.
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