NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) — Pfizer Canada has given CA$500,000 ($440,000) to a Canadian research project studying the pharmacogenomics of pediatric drug toxicity, the company said today.
The project, Genotype-Specific Approaches to Therapy in Childhood initiative, or GATC, plans to study DNA from children who have experienced adverse drug reactions in hopes of identifying biomarkers linked to severe drug toxicity.
The goal of the project is to create a diagnostic that can help predict when ADRs might happen, and to generate a pediatric genetic profile that results in dosing recommendations for “different treatments.”
The program will compare DNA and plasma samples from children who have experienced ADRs against those who have not, and will work with a network of 2,300 pediatricians and 10 hospitals.
GATC is being led by Bruce Carleton and Michael Hayden. Carleton is director of Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research at the Children’s and Women’s Health Center at the University of British Columbia, Michael Hayden is director of the Center for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics.