Precision medicine: what’s all the fuss about?

Abstract

Precision medicine is now recognized globally as a major new era in medicine. It is being driven by advances in genomics and other ‘omics’ but also by the desire on the part of both health systems and governments to offer more targeted and cost-effective care. However, it faces a number of challenges, from the economics of developing more expensive companion diagnostics to the need to educate patients and the public on the advantages for them. New models of both R&D and care delivery are needed to capture the scientific, clinical and economic benefits of precision medicine.

Keywords:

• Companion diagnostics
• ethical issues
• genomics
• molecular taxonomy
• precision medicine
• proteomics
• regulatory approval
• reimbursement
• transcriptomics

Disclosure statement

The author reports two affiliations of relevance to this article: he is chairman of the UK Precision Medicine Catapult and a non-executive director of Celgene.