Fruth Pharmacy adds pharmacogenetic offering to its list of services
POINT PLEASANT, W.Va. -- Fruth Pharmacy on Wednesday announced its pharmacies will now offer Rxight, a broad, comprehensive pharmacogenetic program. The program, developed by MD Labs, will help determine if the medications people take and the dosage levels are right for them based on their DNA. Rxight covers more than 200 prescription and over-the-counter medicines.
"This helps explain why some people wind up in an emergency room from taking a drug while others do fine on the same medication," commented Lynne Fruth, president Fruth Pharmacy. "Until recently, drugs have been prescribed hoping that each drug works pretty much the same in everybody, but knowing they don't. Pharmacogenetics information challenges this one size fits all approach and opens the door to more personalized approaches to prescribing and using medication."
Pharmacogenetics uses information about a person's genetic profile to help choose the medication and drug doses that are likely to work best for them, helping to avoid ineffective or potentially dangerous drug reactions. After their physician has authorized the lab test, the patient visits a Fruth Pharmacy for a simple cheek swab and to purchase the Rxight test. The Fruth pharmacist receives the results from the lab in one week and then schedules a personalized medication review between the patient and a Fruth pharmacist trained in pharmacogenetics. The Fruth pharmacist then coordiates care with the patient's prescribing physician.
The Rxight test provides information on medications covering 14 therapeutic classes, including pain, blood pressure, blood thinner, ADHD, anxiety, depression, diabetes, cancer, respiratory issues and other medications.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, 82% of adults take at least one medication and 29% take five or more. In addition, the CDC reports more than 2 million adverse drug reactions each year leaing to emergeny room visits, with an estimated 100,000 deaths annually.