Five facts about personalised medicine
EPM looks at medicine that is specifically created for individual patients
1. What is personalised medicine?
Personalised – or precision – medicine is designed to avoid the ‘one size fits all’ approach to treatment by taking into account genetics, lifestyle and environment. It has been hailed as the future of healthcare and in areas such as oncology, this approach has become particularly important – trastuzumab (Herceptin) for breast cancer is one example. This drug is said to be more effective fighting cancer cells that have an extra copy of a certain gene as well as an increased level of the protein corresponding to that gene.
There are several FDA-approved treatments in this field which are tailored towards an individual’s genetic make-up or the genetic profile of a tumour.
2. Profit centre
Personalised medicine is big business. According to a report by global law firm Reed Smith, 94% of life science companies will be planning an acquisition this year – more than two thirds of life science companies will be targeting this market when they do.
3. Return on investment
While the popularity of and focus on broad application pharmaceuticals will remain strong, many industry experts say the returns on personalised medicine – despite the smaller market – look like they will be higher.
4. Growth expected
Figures back up the potential in this market with industry statistics (Grand View Research) saying the segment will grow to a nearly £1.76 ($2.5 billion) industry by 2022.
5. Who’s Who
The Who’s Who in personalised medicine is already looking impressive with names like GE Healthcare, Illuminia and Bayer Healthcare coming early to the party.
In 2003 GE Electric (GE) announced plans to purchase Amersham, a British medical diagnostics and bioscience company, for $9.5 billion. At the time, GE’s chairman and CEO Jeffery Immelt said: “We’re seeing the emergence of molecular and personalised medicine … Amersham puts us in the driver’s seat.”
Due to the high calibre of pharmaceutical manufacturers entering this area, industry rivalry will be strong so the coming year could be very exciting indeed.
According to the European Union (EU), personalised medicine ‘should be seen as an evolution of medicine, rather than a revolution’. In the last nine years the EU has committed more than €1bn into health research funding for the development of personalised medicine via its Seventh Framework Program for Research and Technological Innovation.