Biopharmaceutical industry perspectives on the business prospects for personalized medicine

Personalized medicine is entering its second decade, yet the role it will play in addressing the biopharmaceutical industry's productivity gap and the rising cost of healthcare is still a matter of speculation. So what does the biopharmaceutical industry itself say about the business prospects for personalized medicine?

The authors conducted interviews with 20 science and business experts from 13 companies to find out. In this article, particular attention is paid to drug-diagnostic codevelopment, so-called companion diagnostics.

The results of the interviews are discussed in light of perspectives from various stakeholders available from the literature in the public domain. In brief, biopharmaceutical acknowledges the many difficulties that plague this path to product development with particular concern for knowledge gaps in the scientific base, the timing of studies during development, as well as the regulatory, reimbursement and commercial hurdles that can thwart approval, launch and market uptake.

Nonetheless, personalized medicine in general and companion diagnostics in particular are believed to be an increasingly sustainable business proposition with expectations for rapid market growth in the near term.