This is a good article from Medscape and well worth reading...you will need to set up a log on account to read the entire article...basically it explains the changes that are taking place today and what is in store for the future..it will be a big change for big pharma not only in R and D, but marketing as well...many big Pharma companies are currently investing in Biotech companies....BD
One of the biggest challenges for the biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies in the 21st century will be to develop and deliver drugs that fit the individual patient's biology and pathophysiology. This change from blockbuster medicine to personalized medicine will, to a large extent, influence the way that drugs are going to be developed, marketed and prescribed in the future. These changes could mean an end to the blockbuster philosophy in 'big pharma' and thereby impose major changes in company structures. The implementation of personalized medicine will be a stepwise process, where the division of patients into biological subgroups will be the first important step. Today, this is already the situation for several cancer diseases, for example, breast cancer. In the years to come, we will see more and more drugs being prescribed based on the results from pharmacodiagnostic testing. Within cancer medicine, which has been at the forefront of this field, it is expected that in 10-15 years time very few drugs will be prescribed without such a test.
Will all future drug treatments be individualized? Probably not, as there needs to be a clear rationale within a given therapeutic area that must be explained by an unmet medical need of today. The use of simple analgesics, such as acetylsalicylic acid, will probably not be subject to pharmacodiagnostic testing in the near future, but these will be the drugs that are likely to be used within oncology, cardiovascular and infection medicine.
It is often the perception that personalized medicine is something that will arrive in the future. Personalized medicine has arrived, and within certain disease areas it has already been implemented into medical practice, although still to a limited extent. In the years to come we will see an increased use of personalized medicine, and when this concept really takes off, it will have huge consequences for the way that drugs are being developed, marketed and prescribed. Personalized medicine will impose changes in both pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare system, but these changes will not prove to be wasted; they will, without doubt, improve future drug therapy to the benefit of the individual patient and society in general.
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