Pharmacogenomic incidental findings in 308 families: The NIH Undiagnosed Disease Program experience

PURPOSE: Using SNP chip and exome sequence data from individuals participating in the NIH Undiagnosed Diseases Program (UDP), we evaluated the number and therapeutic informativeness of incidental pharmacogenetic variants. METHODS: Pharmacogenomics Knowledgebase (PharmGKB) annotated sequence variants were identified in 1,101 individuals. Medication records of participants were used to identify individuals prescribed medications for which a genetic variant might alter efficacy. RESULTS: 395 sequence variants, including 19 PharmGKB 1A and 1B variants, were identified in SNP chip sequence data and 388 variants, including 21 PharmGKB 1A and 1B variants, were identified in the exome sequence data. Nine participants had incidental pharmacogenetic variants associated with altered efficacy of a prescribed medication. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the small size of the NIH UDP patient cohort, we identified pharmacogenetic incidental findings potentially useful for guiding therapy. Consequently, groups conducting clinical genomic studies might consider reporting of pharmacogenetic incidental findings.