pharmaceutics Review Barriers to Implementing Clinical Pharmacogenetics Testing in Sub-Saharan Africa. A Critical Review Emiliene B. Tata 1, Melvin A. Ambele 1,2 and Michael S. Pepper 1,* 1 Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Department of Immunology, and South African Medical Research Council Extramural Unit for Stem Cell Research & Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0084, South Africa;
[email protected] (E.B.T.);
[email protected] (M.A.A.) 2 Department of Oral Pathology and Oral Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Pretoria, PO BOX 1266, Pretoria 0001, South Africa * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +27-12-319-2190 Received: 2 July 2020; Accepted: 22 August 2020; Published: 26 August 2020 Abstract: Clinical research in high-income countries is increasingly demonstrating the cost- effectiveness of clinical pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing in reducing the incidence of adverse drug reactions and improving overall patient care. Medications are prescribed based on an individual’s genotype (pharmacogenes), which underlies a specific phenotypic drug response. The advent of cost-effective high-throughput genotyping techniques coupled with the existence of Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) dosing guidelines for pharmacogenetic “actionable variants” have increased the clinical applicability of PGx testing. The implementation of clinical PGx testing in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries can significantly improve health care delivery, considering the high incidence of communicable diseases, the increasing incidence of non-communicable diseases, and the high degree of genetic diversity in these populations. However, the implementation of PGx testing has been sluggish in SSA, prompting this review, the aim of which is to document the existing barriers.