Personalised medicine: who is an Asian?

• Published in: The Lancet (British edition) Vol. 369; no. 9575; pp. 1770 - 1771
• Main Author: Po, Alain Li Wan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 26-05-2007; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Area Under Curve; Asia; Asian people; Ethnic Groups - classification; Ethnic Groups - genetics; Ethnicity; Fluorobenzenes - pharmacokinetics; Hindus; Humans; Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors - pharmacokinetics; Internal Medicine; Kinases; Medicine; Pharmacogenetics; Population genetics; Precision medicine; Pyrimidines - pharmacokinetics; Risk factors; Rosuvastatin Calcium; Sulfonamides - pharmacokinetics; Terminology as Topic; Asia; United Kingdom > UK; United States > US; Russia
• ISSN: 0140-6736; 1474-547X
• DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)60793-4

The UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency highlighted the recommendation of a lower starting dose of rosuvastatin of 5 mg for Asians.1 The controversial licensing of the combination of isosorbide dinitrate and hydralazine specifically for African-Americans has perhaps legitimised ethnicgroup targeting further.4 Practice guidelines on overthe-counter sales of simvastatin identified that being south Asian was a risk factor,5 although in the UK few people assigned to this category see themselves as belonging to this group.6 The Asian category has a wide geographical variability in its interpretation. A clear definition of the term is essential, as shown by subgroup analyses in that study, which suggested that Asians responded better to the tyrosine-kinase inhibitor (Thatcher N, Christie Hospital, Manchester, UK, personal communication).