Keyword: Personalized medicine

ABSTRACT: It takes ten to fifteen years for a compound to progress from its identification to regulatory approval as a drug. Drug discovery is complex and resource-intensive process in which more than 90% of compounds never make it from bench to bedside and eventually get rejected during the development process. Experimental drugs failures often occur due to poor target selection, inadequate preclinical models, unforeseen toxicity, lack of efficacy in human trials, and the complexity of disease mechanisms, which make it difficult to predict drug responses accurately. Additionally, drug discovery is slowed down by a lack of collaboration between academia and industry, limiting the timely exchange of knowledge and expertise. Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming an important tool in drug discovery, offering new possibilities to overcome existing challenges. It can help researchers identify better drug targets, make the screening process more efficient, and optimize drug design, which could speed up development and improve success rates. However, use of AI is associated with certain drawbacks such as potential exacerbation of healthcare gaps, protection of sensitive patient data and a need for informed consent. This review aims to discuss key challenges that hinder drug development process and explore future directions to enhance the efficiency of drug discovery.

ABSTRACT: Background: Personalised medicine through pharmacogenomics is revolutionalizing healthcare delivery by encouraging individualized therapy that takes into consideration an individual's genetic profile, environment and lifestyle. Pharmacogenomics is an aspect of pharmacy that studies the relationship between genetic profile and response to therapeutic agents.  However, the application of the concepts of pharmacogenomics in healthcare helps in achieving more effective and safe responses from therapy. This study evaluates the application and benefits of pharmacogenomics in clinical practice based on evidence from current practices in various medical fields.
Methods: In carrying out this review, PubMed database was the primary literature source and we analyzed and synthesized findings from the included literature thematically as it relates to pharmacogenomics applications, benefits and challenges as well as safety and ethical concerns.
Results: Pharmacogenomics has been widely applied in various aspects of healthcare such as in dosing, choice of treatment, reducing and management of adverse reactions, individualization of therapy, optimizing efficacy of therapy. Despite its numerous applications, its adoption faces challenges such as limited clinical evidence, lack of specialized training among healthcare professionals, cost and complexity of genetic mapping as well as ethical concerns. 
Conclusion: With ongoing advances in genomic technologies, pharmacogenomics is becoming an integral aspect of individualization therapy in clinical practice and more widely applied in different healthcare sectors.