(This article was originally published on Life Science Investing News on
June 2, 2015)
Here, the Investing News Network outlines a couple of reasons why the
pharmaceutical industry is such an exciting place to invest in 2015, focusing
on two pharmaceutical industry trends that are driving the market: a departure
from animal testing and a move toward personalized medicine.
Pharmaceutical industry trends: A turn away from
animal testing
One interesting pharmaceutical industry trend is the movement away from
animal testing and towards cheaper and more efficient testing technology.
LiverChip is one such technology — it provides an alternative model of
testing by creating a 3D cell culture platform that mimics the architecture and
physiology of the human liver. This technology has the potential to improve
early stage drug testing because it is significantly less expensive than live
animal testing.
As Bloomberg Business recently reported, animal testing begins
at $50,000 for 28 days with 40 rodents, and can reach more than $1 million for
complex experiments. In contrast, prices for LiverChip begin at $22,000.
This artificial liver could also prove to be a more effective method of
testing drugs. The company Benitec Biopharma (ASX:BLT) is using LiverChip to
search for a potential cure for hepatitis B, an illness that doesn’t naturally
occur in most animals.
On a similar note, the US Department of Defense is reportedly spending
upwards of $36 million funding the development of a “human on a chip” at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. This project is
to feature 10 artificial organs working in tandem, allowing researchers to
understand what side effects may emerge from a specific medication.
However, despite the government’s enthusiastic support of this
technology, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is still cautious of these
alternative models of testing. As Bloomberg Business explains, it still
requires new drugs to be tested on animals in order to determine dosage and to
check for the possibility of birth defects and cancer.
Pharmaceutical industry trends: A move towards
personalized medicine
Looking further at pharmaceutical industry trends, 2015 has also brought
a push towards increased development of personalized medicine. According to the
FDA, personalized medicine can be understood as providing “the right patient with
the right drug at the right dose at the right time.” Essentially, personalized
medicine — sometimes referred to as precision medicine — is the idea of
providing tailored medical care according to a patient’s individual
characteristics, needs, preferences and genetic makeup.
Dr. William Chin, former executive dean for research at the Harvard
Medical School, and current executive vice president of science and regulatory
affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America, has remarked
that personalized medicine “is the grand experiment in medicine that will, I
think, define our age. It is the future of medicine, when diagnoses are more
precise, and therapies are suited for specific diagnosis.”
Large pharmaceutical companies have picked up on Chin’s predictions for
the future of medicine, and have been gradually moving away from the research
and development of blockbuster drugs in favor of an increased focus on targeted
therapies.
A Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development survey shows that
biopharmaceutical companies increased their investment in personalized medicine
by 75 percent between 2005 and 2010; another 53-percent increase is expected
between 2010 and 2015. This year, personalized medicine has emerged as a vital
aspect of the industry, with 94 percent of companies surveyed investing in
personal medicine research.
However, this move towards targeted therapies raises a central question
for Chin: “what is the business model for more personalized medicines?” This
question remains to be answered, and may come to the fore as pharmaceutical
companies continue making the exciting and potentially destabilizing shift
towards personalized medicine in 2015.