The epistemics of “personalized medicine”. Rebranding pharmacogenetics

Abstract

Whereas Chapter 4 focuses on uses and normative claims of the rhetorical frame “Personalized Medicine” in medical and popular writings, Chapter 5 analyzes the intellectual formation of pharmacogenetic, -genomics as a disciplinary field. It explores when, how, and why the leading journals in the field present themselves as part of the overall phenomenon labelled “Personalized Medicine”. Pharmacogenetic journals founded at the beginning of the twenty-first century, not only adopted the rhetorical framing of PM, but also branded pharmacogenomics as a milestone in medical history. Their vision extended to a large societal context that included not only pharmacology and genetics, but also broad movements of multiple stakeholders within society. An analysis of past framings of pharmacological and genetic research centered on the epistemics of “individuality” or “variability” illustrates alternative conceptualizations of scientific progress in medicine. Three scholars exemplify these multifaceted developments: the clinician Archibald E. Garrod, the pharmacologist Werner Kalow and the biochemist Roger J. Williams. It is a history of survival or oblivion of scientific byways, detours and dead-ends that draws our attention to the fact that there was not a linear technological and scientific development that led to contemporary “Personalized Medicine”. Such an analysis sheds light not only on the question of what we gain but also on what we lose by framing specific research projects and traditions as “Personalized Medicine”.