Personalised Healthcare (PHC), sometimes known as Individualized or Stratified Medicine, is an evolving approach to treating patients, a move away from the one-size-fits-all approach to drug development and treatment. Advances in science mean researchers are constantly developing better understanding of the basis of diseases. It is becoming more feasible to identify specific groups of patients by how likely, or how well, they are to respond to a certain drug.
Potential PHC approaches encompass many scientific possibilities including patient symptom or severity questionnaires, blood tests, imaging, segmenting patients according to clinical sub types, and advances in genetics. Each with their own development, evidence, accessibility to doctors and patients and pricing factors to be considered.
Intuitively, we all know it would be better to develop drugs and enable access to them in a way that targets patients in whom the effects will be optimal, and this is a worthy goal to strive for...
However, it is not easy or necessarily quick to get PHC right. The reality of identifying markers of disease, developing a personalised approach alongside drug development, then getting pricing and access to testing to be commercially viable takes a carefully thought-through strategy. This is new ground for many pharma companies, and those that find a way to make it work will have an advantage.
Thus, the earlier product teams critically evaluate their options, the more likely it is that they will be able to develop a PHC approach in parallel with drug development timelines and launch the two together. On the other hand, as may be the case, make a conscious decision that PHC is not feasible for a particular product. This would enable drug development to progress in the usual way, and get medicines to market, and thus patients, without being sidetracked.
TIGCRU Insight has provided consulting support in the PHC arena since 2009. We help clients by
Read our case studies to learn more, or get in touch via our contact form.