Third Santorini conference pharmacogenomics workshop report: "Pharmacogenomics at the crossroads: what else than good science will be needed for the field to become part of Personalized Medicine?"

This workshop discussed the use of pharmacogenomics knowledge in clinical practice. It was organized in three sections: educational needs, definition of industry as a potential trigger, and regulatory aspects. Regarding pharmacogenomics education, it appears that this is truly lacking, except for patients, who are becoming increasingly educated thanks to the media. Regarding administrators, education is mainly a problem of cost. Indeed, even if cost-effective for society on the whole, pharmacogenomic tests will be expensive for hospitals. Physicians are facing an overabundance of information. They must be helped to bridge the gap between knowledge/research and clinical application. Collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and the diagnostics industry could be one of the triggers. Moreover, there is a lack of qualification of this information, even though some guidelines are being produced. The Food and Drug Administration organizes workshops that often lead to publications on pharmacogenomic education, genomic data aims and development concepts, which can finally be translated into guidelines. Industry can contribute to pharmacogenomic development, not only through research, but also through marketing activities, which would promote the use of pharmacogenomics by physicians. Legal aspects were also considered in terms of the problem of availability and the degree of qualification of commercial drug tests on the market. The Innovative Medicine Initiative was also presented, which is a public-private partnership to create a biomedical research and development leader to benefit patients and society. Finally, a technical report from the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies on the socioeconomic impact of pharmacogenomics in the EU was presented.