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  • Letter to the Editor
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Letter To Editor

Reply to Kalow et al

The Pharmacogenomics Journal volume 1, pages 235–236 (2001)Cite this article

In response to our invited ‘Perspectives’ article in the maiden issue of The Pharmacogenomics Journal,1 Kalow, Ozdemir and Tothfalusi2 express concern about our statement, ‘Pharmacogenetic differences can be 10- to more than 40-fold between individuals within an ethnic group, while the mean variation between ethnic groups is rarely more than 2- to 3-fold; this observation is the hallmark of complex (or multifactorial) traits.’ They go on to say, ‘This is a crucial argument in their review, . . .’ Actually, this was not intended to be ‘a crucial argument,’ and what follows is our attempt to clarify our intentions in that invited ‘Perspectives’ article.

Later, Kalow and coworkers2 say, ‘The main purpose of the paper by Nebert and Menon seems to advise governments not to mandate a routine inclusion of ethnic minorities in all clinical studies.’ The subject of our article was primarily concerned with the public's perception of ‘race,’ how incredibly admixed almost all human populations are in the present day, and how alleles of the three major races have diverged.

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References

  1. Nebert DW, Menon A . The Pharmacogenomics Journal 2001 1: 19–22

  2. Kalow W et al. The Pharmacogenomics Journal 2001 1: 234–235

  3. Kalow W, Bertilsson L . Advanc Drug Res 1994 23: 1–53

  4. Dipple KM, McCabe ERB . Am J Hum Genet 2000 66: 1729–1735

  5. Evans DAP et al. Br Med J 1960 2: 485–498

  6. Woolhouse NM et al. Clin Pharmacol Ther 1979 26: 584–591

  7. Nebert DW . Eur J Pharmacol 2000 410: 107–120

  8. Goldstein JA, de Morais SM . Pharmacogenetics 1994 4: 285–299

  9. Oscarson M et al. http://www.imm.ki.se/CYPalleles/ 2001

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health, and Center for Environmental Genetics, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    D W Nebert

  2. Department of Molecular Genetics, Biochemistry & Microbiology, and Center for Environmental Genetics, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    A G Menon

Authors
  1. D W Nebert
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  2. A G Menon
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Correspondence to D W Nebert.

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Nebert, D., Menon, A. Reply to Kalow et al. Pharmacogenomics J 1, 235–236 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.tpj.6500062

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.tpj.6500062

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