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The Story of Precision Medicine
(What it is, why it matters, and why we need to help it!)
Precision Medicine (originally called Personalized Medicine) is a
revolutionary change in the basic practice of medicine.
Without Precision Medicine, doctors have to rely on a limited set of tools for diagnosing diseases.
This can lead to ambiguous diagnoses, or worse, lengthy diagnostic odysseys that can take years without a definitive answer.
?
Without Precision Medicine, drugs are also prescribed with an incomplete understanding of how effective they will be.
As a result, some people get the benefit, some people get even sicker, and many people have no response, with no understanding of why.
Precision Medicine changes all of this.
Precision Medicine utilizes biomarkers, which are simply genes and proteins that can be measured to precisely diagnose diseasesand to guide treatments.
Biomarkers take the guesswork out of medicine.
This biomarker boom is enabling the Precision Medicine revolution.
Biomarkers are not new, but there has been an enormous boom in the discovery of new biomarkers since the end of the Human Genome Project.
The Human Genome Project started in 1990, and was a huge public & private initiative focused on sequencing the entire human genome.
In 2003, victory was declared by both the public and private sectors.
Sequencing an entire human genome was now possible.
During the HGP and since, billions have been spent by the public and private sectors to develop new technologies for measuring biomarkers.
$ $
As a result, we can now do it faster, more accurately, and cheaper than ever before.
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
This has led to a boom in new biomarker discoveries.
But Precision Medicine is not yet ubiquitous.
In fact, except for a few specialty areas of medicine, it’s actually not used all that often.
Part of the problem is awareness.
Precision Medicine is a fast growing area, and doctors don’t always know about all of the options available for their patients.
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Another problem is availability.
The number of new biomarkers that are actually being used in new diagnostic tests is miserably small.
FDA ✔
FDA ✔
FDA ✔
Just 3 new FDA-approved tests per year by some
counts.
That would be depressing…
!d
!!
…except that it takes an average of
15 years for a biomarker to make the journey from discovery
to the clinic.
Biologicalvalidation
Technicalvalidation
Clinicalvalidation
Regulatory review
Reimbursement
Endorsement
And it’s a complicated journey.
The biomarkers discovered over the last decade…
2030
..will require many more years before they show up new tests.
One option is just to be patient, and wait for Precision
Medicine to come to us.
Or we can ask…
Can anything be done to accelerate things?
We Can Try to Stop NIH Budget Cuts!
The White House has proposed cutting 20% from the budget for
the National Institutes of Health!
These proposed cuts come at a terrible
time!“I think [the NIH budget cut] would be cataclysmic, beyond devastating, since it is not only a profound cut, but it is also coming at an especially momentous time of biomedical research.”
Eric Topol, M.D.Precision Medicine Luminary
To FierceHealthcare
Let Your Voice Be Heard!
Send a message to Congress showing your support for Precision Medicine
Click to Send a Letter Now!
Our pre-formatted letter and links to Congress make it easy!
Talk to Your Doctor!Make sure you are asking about all
available precision medicine options relevant for you!
