Abstract

The concept of precision or personalized medicine in pediatrics is still in its infancy, and it is difficult to conduct clinical studies in pediatrics to acquire meaningful correlations between ontogeny and drug disposition due to ethical and logistical constraints. However, knowledge of pediatric pharmacogenomics is steadily expanding due to initiatives by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) to incentivize companies to conduct pediatric trials. The information on pediatric pharmacogenomics is used to implement pharmacogenomics testing in pediatrics so that clinicians can make informed decisions regarding the selection and dosage of drugs for pediatric patients. The most crucial factor in pediatric pharmacogenomics is the ontogeny of drug-metabolizing enzymes (DMEs), transporters, and target proteins. Based on in vitro and in vivo studies on the ontogeny of DMEs, several pharmacogenomic assays for determining the pharmacokinetics of drugs used in pediatric pharmacotherapy were evaluated in pediatrics. In addition, appropriate educational programs must inform clinicians on pharmacogenomic terms to obtain clinically relevant benefits from incorporating pharmacogenomics into pediatric drug therapy. In addition, the comprehensive databases must be maintained and expanded to store all pediatric pharmacogenomics data and continue to work in tandem with other international databases.