Chemists told to get proactive about biotech drugs

Pharmacists have the opportunity to take on a greater role in patient education and management as the number of biotechnology-derived drugs entering the market increases, but they need to be proactive about it, Dr Ines Krass of the University of Sydney's Faculty of Pharmacy told at the annual meeting of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association today (Monday).

"Biotechnology has already had an enormous impact on patients with a wide range of diseases," Krass told the audience at one of several biotechnology-themed symposia at the conference. "Biotechnology is the way of the future, it will continue to expand its role in pharmacotherapy."

Krass explained that the complexity and sophistication of biotherapies required a more cognitive approach to pharmacy practice. "It's not just about dispensing the drug, it's about delivering patient care," she said.

She noted that pharmacists faced a challenge in carving out a role for themselves, and ran the risk of being sidelined, particularly in community pharmacy.

But Krass and other presenters at the symposium noted the increased need for patient education and disease management, particularly when multiple drugs were required to treat conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease and HIV.

Krass speculated that pharmacogenomics, or the use of genomics to predict drug-patient interactions and create tailored drug regimes based on individual genetic profiles, might become a specialist role within pharmacy practice.

And Craig Rayner, from the Victorian College of Pharmacy at Monash University, said that the future role of pharmacy might be to integrate information including pharmacogenomics data from the patient, and possibly the infective agent, to optimise therapeutic strategies.