Abstract
The pharmaceutical industry is very gradually moving away from the blockbuster
model of drug development to a model whereby medicines are designed to treat
the specific patient, not the population as a whole. This trend is known as
personalized medicine. Pharmacogenomics, which determines how genomic
variations in people modify the behavior of drugs, will facilitate the
development of personalized medicine. In this report, we examine how the use
of pharmacogenomics will affect today's drug development strategies. We
discuss many of the economic considerations now facing the industry in
deciding whether or not to embrace pharmacogenomics in personalized medicine.
Our Spectrum Expert Commentary addresses the attitudes of Americans on these
issues.