Personalized Medicine

By James Rudman. The Life Sciences and Biotechnology create an exciting, ever-changing industry.  From cell biology, biophysics, and biotechnology to pharmaceuticals, biomedicine, and more, the industry belongs to people who care deeply about improving and protecting our lives, as well as all living organisms. As Ben Wayne points out,

“It’s a frontier that moves rapidly, constantly driven by change and technological advancements.”

It impacts our economy and job growth. Spending on medicines alone comes to 428 billion dollars per year, proving the necessity of Big Pharma regarding human health. As we rapidly approach 2021, one trend moving forward is personalized medicine, which has resulted in the scientific discipline known as pharmacogenetics –identifying the genes affecting an individual’s response to specific drugs and their susceptibility to a particular disease.

In simplistic terms, the thought behind personalized medicine (PM) is to tailor a patient’s therapy – encouraging earlier diagnosis, followed by a personal risk assessment and a treatment program designed to provide optimal care specifically for the patient. Each patient’s DNA is a vital part of his/her body’s interactive chemical operating system. It instructs the body how to behave and interact on a cellular level. Genes, a segment in DNA, can have many different forms and chemical messengers, creating interactions that affect drug activity in the body. Drug manufacturers will target patient groups that neither experience the intended result of medications nor respond to the traditional health system.

Multiple factors play a role in patient response, including their age, current nutrition and health status, ongoing therapy, environmental exposure, and both genetics and epigenetic factors. Different patterns in drug response also occur among geographically and ethnically distinct populations.

PM may be a new area of medicine, but it can also be considered an extension of traditional medicine with more in-depth precision. Under PM, deciding which drugs or treatment plans are best will be guided in part by the patient’s gene profile and susceptibility to specific diseases. It offers a health care model that works on prevention and coordination via a network of electronic health records. It engages patients in the process by encouraging lifestyle choices and self-participation in health management.

A P&T article by F. Randy Vogenberg, Ph.D., RPh, Carol Isaacson Barash, Ph.D., and Michael Pursel, RPh, MBA, discusses five factors affecting PM evolution –

1. Real-world demonstrations currently showing how PM is:

• Shifting emphasis in medicine from reaction to prevention.
• Enabling the selection of optimal therapy and reducing trial-and-error prescribing.
• Making the use of drugs safer by avoiding adverse drug reactions.
• Increasing patient compliance with treatment.
• Reducing the time and cost of clinical trials.
• Reviving drugs that failed early in clinical trials or on the market
• Reducing the overall cost of health care.

2. Key technology advances, increasing the pace of PM development:

• New tools to decode the human genome more rapidly and accurately
• Large-scale studies and sample repositories that help link genetic variations to disease across multiple countries and continents.
• Health information technology (HIT) that fosters the integration of research and clinical data.

3. Explorations of “personal genomics” and direct-to-consumer genetic testing and how the field affects PM.
4. Information about ground-breaking policy, legislation, and government initiatives in place and development to support PM.
5. Real-world examples of hospitals, regional health care systems, and educational institutions promote PM’s clinical adoption through research, clinical practice, and medical education reform.

While personalized medicine has accelerated since 2003 (and genome mapping), health professionals have observed the variables in drug responses since the early 1950s. As it grows, PM will affect every aspect of healthcare. It will spawn better medication selection, safer dosing options, and improvements in drug development.

To be successful, PM will mean changes across the board – for both healthcare professionals and manufacturers. Everyone must work together to overcome implementation hindrances.  As stated by Vogenberg, Issacson Brash, and Pursel,

“Innovation in provider and benefits management, along with clarity in regulatory and legal constructs will be required, just as new national health insurance reforms begin to emerge.”

These emerging opportunities in genetic medicine are exciting and promising. However, as novel technologies are developed, and healthcare professionals are educated, legal and ethical questions must be clarified. Furthermore, the implications of genetic testing in drug therapy and disease management must be shared with the public.

Personalized Medicine creates new positions and demands high-level talent. Ashton Tweed is your ideal partner. We are a boutique executive search firm and a pioneer in the employment concept of interim talent for the life sciences industry. Our Life Sciences Talent Bank is the first of its kind for the industry, enabling us to provide highly qualified candidates to address our clients’ urgent business needs, serving the entire life sciences continuum from discovery through commercialization. Our mission is to help innovative companies strategically meet their goals, advancing world health as a whole. When we place the right experts in the right company, it ultimately benefits the lives of patients.