Rooted Medication

Nalagenetics, paving the way for safer healthcare industry.

- Marella Putri

When guideline-prescribed drugs don’t work on a patient or cause even worse symptoms, the patient is probably enduring an adverse drug reaction (ADR). Usually, the doctor will simply treat the patient on the basis of clinical trial and error, despite not everyone being able to accept the same type of drugs. Often patients lose time and money and become vulnerable to other types of reaction. In the US, ADR is the fourth major cause of death, causing 8% of hospital admissions and losses of up to $60 billion.

Between 30% and 70% of ADR cases are related to a patient’s genetic response.

Therefore, a Singapore-based medtech startup, Nalagenetics is promoting a solution through pharmacogenomics—the study of genetic responses to drugs that can reduce the risk of an ADR. By analyzing a patient’s genetics, Nalagenetics will be able to recommend to doctors how their patients would respond to certain types of drugs and advise the safe dosage to prevent an ADR. Thus, the startup aims to reduce cases of ADR while increasing the effectiveness of prescribed dosages.

Nalagenetics was cofounded by a team of scientists who met at the Genome Institute of Singapore. The startup initially was meant only to work on a non-profit project on leprosy in Papua, Indonesia—and not become the established company Nalagenetics is now. The team worked with Indonesia’s Research and Development Body (Litbangkes) at the Ministry of Health, and an NGO called Leprosy Research Initiative back in 2016. They sampled the DNA of the patients and analyzed whether their genetics were suited to treatment with WHO-certified leprosy drug Dapsone, given that its worst adverse reaction could have fatal consequences.