We now have the technology to change the face of medicine by accurately matching medicines to people’s genetic code, according to a major report. Some drugs are rendered useless or even dangerous as a result of minor changes in how our bodies function.

The British Pharmacological Society and the Royal College of Physicians claim that a genetic test can predict how well drugs would work in your body. The tests may be offered on the National Health Service (NHS) next year. Your genetic code sometimes referred to as DNA, is a set of instructions that governs how your body functions. The science of matching medicine to your DNA is known as pharmacogenomics. It could have helped Jane Burns of Liverpool, who lost two-thirds of her skin following a bad reaction to new epilepsy therapy.

Prof. Sir Munir Pirmohamed of the University of Liverpool believes that we need to move away from the “one drug, one dose fits all” strategy and toward a more individualized approach, in which patients are given the right treatment at the right dose to increase medicine effectiveness and safety. He argues that as we grow older and are given more prescriptions, there’s a 70% chance that by the time we’re 70, we’ll be taking at least one drug that is influenced by our genetic makeup.