Challenges of pharmaceutical research facing personalization

The aim of pharmaceutical research or the development of new medicines to treat disease has traditionally been to get the same medicine to all people globally. Now, personalized precision medicine is addressed individually to the patient who needs more personalized and effective treatments. But there are some challenges that have to be faced.

Cover of the Roche Institute Foundation’s Anticipando Report. photo provided

That’s the analysis of a new antisepando report prepared by the Roche Institute Foundation’s Observatory of Trends in Future Medicine, called “Pharmacological research in the era of personalized precision medicine.”

Technological and biological advances of recent decades have allowed genomic sequencing, big data analysis, and more recently artificial intelligence tools.

This helps not only to understand genetic predisposition to certain diseases, but also to understand individual response to treatment and find markers or targets that may help drugs optimize their effectiveness and reduce side effects. Let’s personalize to reduce.

With the provision of data and real-life evidence of the effects of drugs
And with the increasing digitalization of clinical research, advances can also be applied to optimize trial design and identify new molecules or new targets in a more efficient manner to reduce time and cost in the future of medicinal research. Needed

trends in basic or preclinical research Undergo the identification of new therapeutic targets and therapeutic mechanisms. clinical researchWith patients, among other things, the design of new clinical trials is proposed.

An example of new design Basket Clinical Trial This involves populations that share similar biomarkers or molecular alterations and are treated with the same therapy to evaluate its effect on multiple malignancies that have the same target.

“However – the report points out – there is still a long way to go to implement and consolidate new advances and trends in medicinal research”.

Recommendations for pharmaceutical research

The experts participating in this new antisipando report coordinated by Dr. Mabel Loza, Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Santiago de CompostelaState a series of recommendations to more easily transfer medicinal research into clinical practice.

“The need for a paradigm shift in research aimed at reducing the time and optimizing the processes of obtaining new, more effective and safe drugs, taking into account the needs and individual characteristics of patients, within the framework of personalized medicine precision,” the document indicates.

these are action Roche Institute Foundation report highlights experts:

• Design translational preclinical models and technologies Which allow to measure their validity since current models are based on cellular, tissue or animal models that do not always reproduce human physiology. An example of this are organoids and other models such as those that come from a person’s cells.
• Integrate and share information from different sources Which still exists today and makes it available to researchers.
• To promote coordinated, collaborative and multidisciplinary research. Furthermore, with the advent of new technological and computational advances, the need arises to include new professional profiles in research teams.
• Increase publicity in society Knowledge about pharmaceutical research. Transparently communicating scientific advances and discoveries will help understand their value, build trust, and promote informed patient participation in clinical trials.
• adequately fund research, is essential to develop innovative treatments, medicines and medical technologies. Furthermore, promoting research boosts the country’s economy by creating employment and encouraging the growth of emerging industries. However, the report shows that Spain currently invests 1.44% of its GDP in R&D, far from the average of European countries, which stood at 2.27% in 2021.
• Promote public-private collaboration Accelerating the development of innovative treatments, facilitating the arrival of new medicines to patients and contributing to improving the efficiency of processes, thus promoting significant advances in global health.
• Establish mechanisms that ensure that policies and regulations on medicinal research are up to date Based on the progress and trends of personalized precision medicine, it is necessary to adapt to scientific and technological advances occurring more rapidly, making regulation in this field sometimes obsolete.