Abstract
Over the last three to four decades, Therapeutic Drug Monitoring (TDM)
has shaped itself as therapeutic drug management (TDM), an integral
component of precision medicine. The practice of TDM is not extensive in
India, despite being one of the fastest growing economies in the world.
It is currently limited to a few academic medical centers and teaching
hospitals. Apart from the immunosuppressive drugs, several other
therapeutic areas like anticancer, antifungals, antibiotics and
antitubercular have demonstrated great potential to improve the patient
outcomes in the Indian settings. Factors like higher prevalence of
nutritional deficiencies, tropical diseases, widespread use of
alternative medicines, unalike pharmacogenomics, and sparse population
specific data available on therapeutic ranges of several drugs, makes in
the population of this subcontinent unique regarding the relevance of
TDM. Despite the impact of TDM in clinical science and it’s widespread
application, TDM has failed to receive the attention it deserves in
India. This review intends to bring out a strength-weakness-opportunity
and threats (SWOT) analysis for TDM in India so that appropriate steps
for fostering growth of TDM could be envisioned. The need of the hour is
creation of a cooperative group including all the stake holders like TDM
professionals, clinicians and the government and devising a National
Action Plan to strengthen TDM. Nodal TDM centres should be established
and pilot programs should be rolled out for identifying the thrust areas
for TDM in the country, capacity building and creating awareness to
integrate TDM into mainstream clinical medicine.