Also called PGx testing, or pharmacogenetic testing. Some people break down certain medicines more slowly than most, and some more quickly. Your genes are part of the reason. GeneMatrix’s pharmacogenomic (PGx) test, sometimes called a medication DNA test, shows from one saliva sample which way you are likely to lean, in a report to bring to the people who prescribe for you.
$399GenePGx, self-pay price
One price, paid when you order. We don’t send a claim to your health insurance.
Want to use insurance? Insurance billing is coming soon. How it will work
Have Medicare, Medicaid or other government coverage? Please contact us before you order.
- Genotyped in our own CLIA-certified lab (New York orders excepted)
- Your genetic data is never sold, and never shared for marketing or research
- Reports are yours to keep
- Full refund within 30 days of ordering, as long as your results haven’t been delivered.
What it is
Pharmacogenomic testing, also called pharmacogenetic or PGx testing, is a DNA test for medications: it shows how your genes affect how your body processes certain medicines, to discuss with your prescriber.
Your body uses enzymes and other proteins to take in, activate and clear many medicines, and your genes hold the instructions for making them. Small, common differences in those genes can make that work faster or slower than usual. The test reads some of those differences from a sample you collect at home.
Some call it a genetic test for medications, and you’ll see two longer words for it. Pharmacogenetics usually means one gene and one medicine; pharmacogenomics means many genes at once. For a test you order, they mean the same thing.
- More slowlyA medicine may stay in your body longer than expected.
- At a typical rateYour body handles it the way most people’s do.
- More quicklyA medicine may leave your body sooner than expected.
Who it’s for
A result is most useful when someone who prescribes for you reads it. It may be worth raising if one of these sounds like you.
Several medicines at once
Your prescriber weighs how each new medicine fits with the ones you already take.A medicine that didn’t suit you
You had side effects or other trouble with a medicine, and want to ask whether how your body processes it may play a part.An operation or dental work ahead
You would like a result ready before anyone prescribes pain relief around the procedure.A medicine for depression or anxiety
You want one more thing to talk through with your prescriber. A result can’t say which medicine will work for you.Before a long-term medicine
You are about to start something you may take for years, and would like the result in hand first.Suggested by a clinician
A prescriber or pharmacist has mentioned pharmacogenomic testing, and you want a report to bring back to them.
GenePGx is for adults 18 and older. For a child, ask their clinician about clinical pharmacogenomic testing.
Where guidance exists
Published guidelines, such as those from the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC), cover some pairs of genes and medicines. Most fall into a few groups.
- Heart and blood
Some blood thinners and statins
Some medicines that help prevent blood clots, such as after a heart attack or a stent, and some statins for cholesterol, have guidelines that take genes into account. - Stomach
Some stomach-acid medicines
Some medicines that lower stomach acid, taken for heartburn or ulcers, are cleared by an enzyme whose gene varies from person to person. - Pain
Some pain relievers
Some opioid pain relievers and some anti-inflammatory painkillers, including ones prescribed around surgery or dental work. - Mental health
Some antidepressants
Some medicines for depression and anxiety, where genes affect how quickly the body breaks them down. - Specialist care
Some specialist medicines
Some medicines used in cancer care, after a transplant, for epilepsy and for HIV, where the specialist who prescribes them reads the result.
Guidance for a group doesn’t mean every medicine in it is linked to a gene, or that any one test checks every gene a guideline uses.
To see whether published guidance links a particular medicine to a gene, try the Medication Check.
Using a result
What does a result say?
For each gene, the report gives your genotype and what it usually means for the enzyme or protein that gene makes. For the enzymes that break medicines down, most results fall under a few plain labels:
- Poor metabolizer
- little or no working enzyme, so some medicines build up, or are never switched on.
- Intermediate metabolizer
- less working enzyme than usual.
- Normal metabolizer
- the amount most people have.
- Rapid or ultrarapid metabolizer
- more than usual, so some medicines are cleared, or switched on, faster.
Other genes work differently. Some affect how a medicine is carried into the cells that need it, and a few are linked to rare, serious reactions to particular medicines.
How do you get one?
There are two usual routes. A prescriber, pharmacist or hospital clinic can arrange clinical pharmacogenomic testing, often when a particular medicine is being considered. Or you can get a test online, collect a sample at home and bring the report to the people who prescribe for you. The genes each test reads differ, so it is worth checking the list.
What do you do with the result?
Share it with the prescriber who manages your medicines, and with your pharmacist. Keep it: your genes stay the same through life, so one report can be looked at again whenever a new medicine comes up. Leave any change to them. A result is one input to their decision, next to your history and your other medicines. If a result touches a medicine you already take, keep taking it as prescribed and raise it at your next appointment, or sooner if you’re worried.
Limits
Pharmacogenomic results describe how your body is likely to process certain medicines. They do not tell you whether a medicine will work for you, and they are not dosing instructions. Never start, stop or change a medication because of a genetic result. Bring it to the prescriber who manages your medicines.
- It can’t say whether a medicine will work for you, or how much of it you need. Those decisions stay with your prescriber.
- It checks a set list of known variants in these genes and counts copies of the CYP2D6 gene. It does not read whole genes, so it can miss rare or new variants, and a result with no variant found does not rule out a change in how you process a medicine.
- Genes are only part of the picture. Your age, your kidneys and liver, what you eat and the other medicines you take all play a part too, and a gene result can’t account for them.
- Guidelines cover some medicines and not others, and they change as the evidence grows, so a report can only use the guidance that exists when it is written.
- It isn’t a diagnosis of any condition, an ancestry test or a test of inherited disease risk.
The evidence
It depends on what you want it to do. For some pairs of genes and medicines, published guidelines already set out how a prescriber can use a result. For many others there is no guidance yet, and no result can say which medicine will work for you.
In trials of testing in depression care, using the results brought modest gains on some measures, not all. What the depression trials found.
For the wider picture, including how many guidelines and medicine labels now mention genes, read Pharmacogenomics in 2026: what the evidence says.
Cost
GenePGx is $399 at the self-pay price, paid when you order. Want to use insurance? Insurance billing is coming soon.
Prices for PGx tests vary with how many genes a test reads, whether it counts missing or extra copies of a gene, and whether a consultation comes with it.
Asking about a medicine for depression or anxiety? Mental health DNA tests for antidepressants: what they can and can’t tell you
Our test
GenePGx
GenePGx is our DNA test for medications. Checks selected known variants in 15 genes, plus CYP2D6 copy number, by genotyping.
$399 at the self-pay price. GenePGx is for adults 18 and older.
Further reading
- GeneSight alternative: how GenePGx and GeneSight compareAn honest, dated comparison of GeneSight and GenePGx, including when GeneSight may suit you better.Updated October 1, 2026
- Genetic testing for ADHD medication: what your genes can and can’t showOne ADHD medicine has a CPIC gene-based guideline and the stimulants have none: what a genetic test can and can’t show.Updated October 1, 2026
- Mental health DNA test: how you’re likely to process antidepressants and other psychiatric medicinesA pharmacogenomic report on how you’re likely to process mental-health medicines, to bring to your prescriber.Updated October 1, 2026
- Pharmacogenomics in 2026: what the evidence saysNearly everyone carries a gene variant that may change how their body processes a medicine. Here is what the evidence says in 2026.Updated October 1, 2026
- Statin genetic test: what SLCO1B1 can tell you, and what it can’tHow one gene, SLCO1B1, affects the way your body handles some statins, and what a result can’t tell you.Updated October 1, 2026
- Do mental health DNA tests work? What they can and can’t tell you about psychiatric medicinesWhat a mental health DNA test reads, what it can’t tell you, and what the depression trials found.Updated September 30, 2026
- How does pharmacogenomics work? A plain-English guideSome genes change how quickly you process certain medicines, and published guidance says when that matters.Updated September 30, 2026
One report for every prescriber. $399 self-pay price.
Please read
Please read
PGxPharmacogenomic results describe how your body is likely to process certain medicines. They do not tell you whether a medicine will work for you, and they are not dosing instructions. Never start, stop or change a medication because of a genetic result. Bring it to the prescriber who manages your medicines.
LabOur genetic tests are laboratory-developed tests performed in our own CLIA-certified laboratory. New York is the exception: orders shipped there are completed through a physician order or a reference laboratory permitted in New York. Our genetic tests have not been cleared or approved by the FDA. Results describe inherited traits and risks and are meant to inform decisions you make with your clinician. They are not a diagnosis.