Frequently Asked Questions

Pharmacogenomics (PGx) is the study of how an individual person's genes affect their response to medications. It is a branch of precision (or personalised) medicine, which allows doctors to select an individualised treatment that is most likely to work based on the genetic makeup of the patient in front of them.

Pharmacogenomic research identifies genes that may have an impact on how a person might respond to a particular medication. Once this theoretical link has been identified, this has to be validated clinically in large research trials. If the clinical trials find evidence to support a therapeutic adjustment, this gets incorporated into one of a number of large centralised databases of approved guidance. Mantara® uses technology which draws on this guidance to provide its results. The Mantara® PGx DNA Test report only makes recommendations based on actionable evidence your doctor can use in practice. Visit our How it Works page for more information.

In many cases the genetic links with medication are well established. In fact, many common medications such as codeine already contain advice for prescribers if they know certain genetic information about you. The problem is, without doing a pharmacogenomic test, your doctor will not know what applies to you so they will not have all the information they need to make the best prescription choice for you.

We take your data security extremely seriously, conforming to GDPR regulations including encryption of communication and storage of your personal health data. You remain in total control of who has access to your data and how it is used. We will not use or sell your personal information for any research or commercial purposes without your express permission in advance.

Your personal data is just that - yours!

Our test is not yet available through the NHS. We are partnering with various private GP and other healthcare practices across the country to be able to offer the test. We hope to be able to offer the test on the NHS in the near future. Please get in touch to find out which GP practices/pharmacies are participating near you.

Also, you can buy a test here.

The Mantara® PGx DNA Test includes around 80 of the most commonly prescribed medicines. The field of pharmacogenomics is expanding all the time and there are many medications for which there isn't sufficient data yet on how they interact with certain genes. However, this is a rapidly progressing field and we hope to have most of the commonly used medications included in our test in the coming years. Please click here for details of which medicines are currently included.

If you can’t find the answer to your question on our website, please contact us and tell us what you would like to know. We will get back to you as soon as possible with further information.