Pharmacogenomics, clinical pharmacology, and orphan drugs

The course addresses and translates into pharmacology what has been learned from biochemistry to pathophysiology with the final aim to give the pharmacological basis of applied pharmacology and therapeutics. More specifically, the first part of the course is focused on clinical pharmacology from principle of general pharmacology to pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of synthetic and biotechnological drugs. In the second part, the course will cover the pharmacogenomics issues of how genes affect a person's response to drugs and how an orphan drug has been developed to treat rare medical conditions.
Each topic will be discussed in terms of pathophysiology and genetics of the disease, the mechanism of action of the used drugs and their efficacy and safety profiles.

At the end of the course, the student must be able to demonstrate that she/he has understood the pharmacological basis and the rationale for tailoring a specific drug to a specific patient and to assess the benefit/risk ratio inherent to its use.