Pharmacogenomics strategies to optimize treatments for multiple sclerosis: Insights from clinical research.

•While there are several MS therapies none have been effective in treating all patients. A priori markers to predict the optimal benefit-to-risk profile of an individual MS patient would greatly facilitate the decision-making process, thereby helping the patient receive the most optimal treatment early on in the disease process.•Pharmacogenomic methods evaluate how a person's genetic and genomic makeup affects their response to therapeutics. This review focuses on how pharmacogenomics studies conducted from longitudinal clinical studies concerning glatiramer acetate and the interferon products are being used to identify biologically relevant differences in MS treatments and provide characterization of the predictive clinical response patterns.•The findings from these pharmacogenomic studies on glatiramer acetate and interferons have provided insights about the prognostic markers associated with MS disease susceptibility and course, as well as the mode of action of MS therapies and characterization of response patterns, both clinically and molecularly.•While substantial progress has been made towards the prediction of response to MS therapies, neurologists still do not have reliable means to predict which treatment will best fit specific patients.•It is essential that personalized medicine approaches are validated and clinically applied so as to avoid the current trial-and-error paradigm of treatment allocation.