Article by Emily Newton
Bio: Emily Newton
is the Editor-in-Chief at Revolutionized.
She regularly covers stories in the tech and industrial sectors.
Most people can recall instances where they
received prescription drugs that didn’t work as well as their physicians
expected. Personalized — or precision — medicine aims to eliminate or
substantially reduce such occasions with medications made for specific
patients. Here’s a look at how that trend could bring about notable and
positive pharmaceutical industry changes.
Helping Clinical Trials Succeed More Often
Pharmaceutical companies invest significant
amounts of time and money into products that often fail in clinical trials. One
large study showed that less than 14% of drugs succeed in all clinical
trial stages. However, variation occurs depending on the medication category.
For example, products for oncology patients work only 3.4% of the time.
Precision medicine could reduce the likelihood
of failure by giving more insights into how individual patients might react and
which dosage regimens should provide the desired results. For example, looking
at data that shows a patient’s metabolic profile could show
their likely response to a medicine based on the presence of a particular gene.
That knowledge could reverse side effects that may delay a clinical trial or
mean a drug does not progress to the next phase.
Another possibility is to use genetic data to
get clues about how specific population subgroups will likely respond to a
product. This allows clinical trials to proceed more efficiently and
effectively because the people taking the medication are highly likely to react
favorably with fewer adverse effects. Thus, clinical trials become more
adaptive, which could support patient and pharmaceutical company goals.
Promoting Cost-Saving Measures
Pharmaceutical executives face the daunting
task of keeping costs as low as possible while helping an organization’s bottom
line. The industry typically faces higher expenses than some other sectors, but
personalized medicine could help address that matter.
A survey of top pharmaceutical leaders showed
that 92% considered precision medicine an opportunity,
and 84% of respondents had placed it on their corporate agendas. Moreover, most
of the people in the study believed precision medicine provided obvious drug
development advantages over current methods. It would shorten research and
development times and speed the time to market.
The research also noted that even a modest
estimate indicated personalized medicine could lead to a 17% savings for drug
development. In that case, the total cost reduction could total $26 billion
annually for the worldwide industry.
Switching to a personalized medicine focus
certainly takes substantial time, money and dedication. However, many
pharmaceutical company leaders could find it worthwhile, especially as
stakeholders become more interested in precision medicine during the
foreseeable future. Making that decision could help businesses save money over
the long term while remaining relevant in a competitive industry.
Offering More Access to Data
Data is at the heart of personalized medicine.
It helps confirm how to create the most effective treatment for one person.
It’s no surprise that some pharmaceutical companies invest in businesses to
increase the overall information available to them.
For example, Roche recently struck several
acquisition deals for companies that will result in access to genomic data from thousands of
patients with cancer. That’s an example of how acquisitions could help companies
get a head start after leaders show interest in personalized medicine.
Gaining insights from data is also becoming a
more widespread practice even before company representatives actively pivot
into personalized medicine. For example, many bioprocessing facilities
transitioned into Industry 4.0 operations by using smart sensors to monitor
procedures.
That works exceptionally well with
temperature-sensitive processes. Experts widely agree that a temperature range between 30-35 degrees Celsius
is ideal for bioethanol fermentation. Sensors can confirm those conditions and
even send the information to a lab technician’s smartphone.
Moving to Better Operating and Production Methods
Personalized medicine represents one of many
factors that have pushed pharmaceutical companies to change for the better over
the years. Another example is the transition from batch chemistry to flow
chemistry. The latter option involves chemical reactions occurring in a tube.
It typically has a 10%-20% smaller space requirement than batch
processing. Plus, it leads to quicker chemical reactions with improved yields.
One flow chemistry system used at Pfizer sampled 5,760 reactions in four
days. Laboratory personnel then chose the ones with the best yields and scaled
up based on that information. This approach is one example of how pharmaceutical
company evolution could reduce trial-and-error methods, getting effective
products on the market more efficiently.
Pharmaceutical companies that embrace
precision medicine must implement wholly different manufacturing methods.
However, as the flow chemistry example above shows, using new options could
bring significant payoffs.
Chris Striffler, supply chain services leader
at Clarkston Consulting, explains, “With precision medicines, it’s a much more
complex model with more products, and with a lot size of one, it’s a complete shift
away from large batch production.” He continued, “The clinics, hospitals and
physicians’ offices are now a much more critical part of the supply chain.”
That shift could make pharmaceutical companies more aware of areas for growth
and how to better serve customers.
Enabling Rapid Therapeutic Treatments
The discussion above highlighted how
personalized medicine could enhance clinical trials and improve patient
outcomes. However, a similar effect could happen if pharmaceutical companies
get ongoing, real-time data from individualized patients.
A team of scientists recently developed an
approach that speedily detects target molecules. It relies on supramolecular compounds serving as hosts.
Once it recognizes a target, the two molecules bind and cause fluorescence,
making the molecule’s presence known.
Getting data about a patient’s blood molecules
is a vital part of accelerating personalized medicine, particularly for
determining the therapeutic dosage. For now, drug manufacturers rely on
averages for suggested dosages. However, that typically means the data relates
to male test cases. Various other factors, such as a person’s age and weight,
can affect how they metabolize a drug, too.
This recent progress in finding target
molecules could help pharmaceutical companies move away from averages toward
service to single patients. Plus, it could mean businesses more quickly
determine the correct dosage for people in life-threatening situations.
Personalized Medicine Is the Future
People are increasingly getting more
interested in precision medicine. They know it often doesn’t make sense to give
someone the same medications or dosages intended for thousands or millions of
other patients.
It will undoubtedly take time for
pharmaceutical companies to transition to a personalized medicine approach.
However, this overview shows that the decision can bring plenty of positive
impacts, helping them remain competitive now and over time.