Is it time to integrate sex and gender into drug design and development?

What is gender medicine? Gender medicine investigates the relation- ship between gender and effectiveness of diagnosis and therapies in the treatment of diseases. Sex and gender affect a broad range of pathophysiological functions, having a sig- ni cant impact on a wide group of diseases. The main areas in uenced by gender are those concerning the cardiovascular, pulmo- nary and autoimmune systems, in addition to diseases involving gastroenterology, hepatol- ogy, nephrology, endocrinology, hematology and neurology. Moreover, the therapeutic processes determining the pharmacokinet- ics and pharmacodynamics [1–3] of drugs and therapeutic agents have been found to differ as a function of gender and sex. As personalized medicine becomes an increasingly popular concept, the emphasis on gender in tailoring medicine toward an individual has in turn grown [4]. To date, gender medicine has largely focused on women, although gender pharmacology and, gender oriented drug design tends to focus on both sexes, with greater attention given to either women or men depending on if it is an area of insuf cient researc