Generally medical treatments are designed to cure the “average patient” as an approach suitable for “all” situations. This may be successful for certain groups of patients, but this not an approach that works for everyone. Recently, the emergence of ‘precision medicine’ has not only created a ripple in the medical world but also promises to change the way healthcare is thought about. Precision medicine is specifically developed and aimed at a particular group of patients, rather than the general public. This new direction brings up the question, how pharma industry players will rise to the challenge and develop strategies to be in sync with the demands of ‘precision medicine,’ in contrast to satisfying the market requirements and conforming to conventional practices.

The transition from the conventional approach to treatment, not accounting for differences between each individual, towards targeted medicine could redefine disease treatment and prevention. This new outlook on medicine will open a new world of possibilities. The advances in targeted medicine will enable doctors and researchers to tailor treatments for specific diseases based on individual characteristics of patients including; genetic makeup, lifestyle, and environment. The Office of Drug Evaluation (ODE), a new branch of the USFDA, has been created to leverage cutting-edge science. It will outline the regulations and develop a standardized approach to precision medicine. This aims to guide and curve the industry to a change at the clinical level as well as within drug discovery and development stage, triggering an evolution in the pharmaceutical industry.

More than 450 medicinal products have been identified and withdrawn across continents during the past 25 years; adverse drug reactions (ADRs) have been attributed as a primary cause for such post-marketing withdrawals of medicines. Targeted medicine may prevent the withdrawal of these medications, as the development could be ‘targeted’ and developed toward a specific demographic of patients who do not experience any ADRs only benefits. The field of precision medicine holds the key to transforming the fundamental delivery of healthcare. It will offer unprecedented opportunities in healthcare and promises to be rewrite the rules of the pharmaceutical industry. Looking forwards, this will open a world full of of personalized interventions to prevent or delay the onset of diseases along with more precise diagnosis and treatment with multi-level patient and clinician satisfaction.

References:

Herper, M. (2019). FDA plans to create a new office to leverage cutting-edge science. [online] STAT. Available at: https://www.statnews.com/2019/01/07/fda-plans-to-create-a-new-office-to-leverage-cutting-edge-science/ [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020].

Linguamatics. (2020). Precision Medicine. [online] Available at: https://www.linguamatics.com/solutions/precision-medicine [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020].

Onakpoya, I.J., Heneghan, C.J. and Aronson, J.K., 2016. Post-marketing withdrawal of 462 medicinal products because of adverse drug reactions: a systematic review of the world literature. BMC medicine, 14(1), p.10.

Reference, G. (2019). What is precision medicine?. [online] Genetics Home Reference. Available at: https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/primer/precisionmedicine/definition [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020].

Siramshetty, V.B., Nickel, J., Omieczynski, C., Gohlke, B.O., Drwal, M.N. and Preissner, R., 2015. WITHDRAWN—a resource for withdrawn and discontinued drugs. Nucleic acids research, 44(D1), pp.D1080-D1086.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2018). Precision Medicine. [online] Available at: https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/vitro-diagnostics/precision-medicine [Accessed 7 Jan. 2020].