PGx reduces the trial and error approach to prescriptions, saving time and money, choosing medicines that are likely to be more effective, and avoiding unpleasant side effects.

It will help you to understand which medications will work best for your treatment plan based on your individual DNA, determining the most effective dosage and identifying more appropriate drugs and dosages and reducing the risks of serious side effects.

A Pharmacogenomic test will be most beneficial to people who are on repeat prescriptions, especially if they are taking several different medications.

It takes 2 minutes to book your appointment at your nearest pharmacy. On the day of your appointment, you will be asked to do a 5-minute saliva test, which the pharmacist will then send to our approved laboratory partner.

Your genes will be analysed for possible interactions with more than 100 medicines.

International authorities in the US, Canada and Europe have cooperated to prepare large databases giving advice about which medicines and which doses suit each genetic make up.

Results typically take 8 to 10 working weeks, but in some cases may take up to 12 weeks. The laboratory will then prepare an automatic report for you showing how medicines interact with your genes. All reports are computerised and password protected.

In some cases, a second sample may be required due to the sensitivity of saliva testing. If this happens there is no additional cost, but time delays may apply.

Our healthcare professionals will explain the reports for you and show you how to share them with your doctors.

The report may not recommend any change to your current prescriptions.

However more than 90% of people have genetic variants that might affect their response to common medicines.

So the report might alert you that one or more of your medicines is not optimally suited to your genes - you should share this advice with your doctor.

The report may also be useful in alerting you if you have genes that would interact with medicines that you are not taking at the moment.

The report will list those genes and medicines. It would be wise to show this report to your doctors for future use.

Your genetic data is very specific - it contains information on about 50 genetic variants at 12 genes.

Your saliva sample will have been given a bar code which identifies it in the laboratory and in the report.

Only your pharmacist knows your name and they will treat your PGx data with the same confidentiality as they treat all your personal information.

You will receive a Username and Password so you can access the report on your phone or desktop computer. You can share the Username and Password with your doctors.

You can, at any time, request that your sample is securely and permanently destroyed. . If you request this, we will, of course, comply.