New Center for Drug Safety Hosts its First Lecture

Reknowned geneticist spoke on the expanding field of pharmacogenomics

By Rhonda Beier
April 6, 2009

The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy’s newly created Center for Drug Safety hosted its first seminar on March 25 with the geneticist Y.T. Chen, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics and genetics at Duke University Medical Center and distinguished research fellow at Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, as the guest speaker. Well known for his work in the discovery and development of a treatment for the rare and fatal genetic condition Pompe disease, Dr. Chen spoke at the center on the rapidly expanding field of pharmacogenomics.

Chen presented his genetic research on severe cutaneous adverse drug reactions (ADRs) that lead to Stevens-Johnson syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. His studies revealed a link between a specific allele HLA-B* 1502 and severe cutaneous reaction to carbamazepine, a drug used primarily in the treatment of epilepsy and bipolar disorder. This allele is more common among people of Asian descent, especially Taiwan Han Chinese, who have higher rates of carbamazepine-induced reactions than other populations.

Carbamazepine is one of a growing number of Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs which have genetic biomarker information and testing suggestions on the label. Treating ADR morbidity and mortality cost the health care system an estimated $177 billion in 2000. Chen’s work has changed the field of drug safety, showing that yesterday’s unpredictable ADR can now be predicted and prevented.

“It was an honor to have Dr. Chen as a guest speaker,” said Sheila Weiss Smith, PhD, director of the Center for Drug Safety and an associate professor of pharmaceutical health services research at the School of Pharmacy. “His research in this area has changed the way we think of adverse events. It opens the possibility of keeping important drugs on the market, or even reintroducing some withdrawn drugs, by being able to prevent what was only recently unpredictable.”

The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy’s Center for Drug Safety was launched in January 2009 with a mission to guide and inspire research and scholarship in pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety.