Pharmaceuticals with a human face
FarmmanDaria Nikolaeva, appendix to the newspaper "Kommersant" dated 15.06.2010
Published on the Remedium websitePharmaceutical companies are developing the direction of personalized medicine, which involves an individual approach to the patient.
Now they not only produce pills, but also develop comprehensive solutions consisting of diagnostics, the creation of an individual drug and personal therapy.
A person gets sick and, in order to be cured, turns not to a doctor in a hospital, but to a pharmaceutical company. There he is diagnosed, an individual medicine and a treatment method are created based on the analyses. It seems that such a scenario is no longer fiction. Today, pharmaceutical companies offer specific medications, methods or procedures using pharmaceutical components to a specific patient. Almost all major pharmaceutical companies recognize that in parallel with the production of medicines, the process of creating the latest methods of treatment and diagnosis is underway. And this will be a real breakthrough in the pharmaceutical industry, which in the future will become an innovative field for the creation of new methods of treatment.
Personal challenge
The principle of "one medicine for all" is becoming a thing of the past, the Rosh company says and offers comprehensive solutions – both diagnostic and pharmaceutical. The company has been actively developing a personalized medicine strategy for several years. Its essence is to find a therapy suitable for a particular patient based on the achievements of molecular biology and diagnostics.
"Medicine is becoming personalized, that is, the choice of treatment method depends on the individual genetic characteristics of a person," says Milos Davidovich, head of the Chemopharm representative office in Russia. Indeed, today science has stepped so far that one disease can be divided into several types depending on the histology, biology and genotype of the tumor. That is why treatment is becoming more and more focused on patients of a certain profile. According to experts, by 2030 personalized medicine will occupy about 25% of the global pharmaceutical market, or $250 billion.
However, pharmaceutical companies admit that so far we are not talking about personalized aspirin or analgin, but about drugs for the treatment of complex and rare diseases. Currently, new drugs are being developed aimed at individual human characteristics, mainly in the field of oncology, cardiovascular diseases, diseases of the nervous system. However, the developers of new drugs are convinced: over time, the range of medications and therapies will be significantly expanded.
Bayer relies on an individual approach to treatment. Pharmagenetics is considered the key to personalized medicine there and new methods of treating multiple sclerosis, hemophilia and some types of cancer are being developed. "Now pharmaceutical companies are focused on creating a comprehensive step–by-step treatment of patients and are already successfully implementing new technologies, such as targeted therapy," says Anton Pushkarev from Bayer HealthCare. As an example of a target drug (from the English "target" - "target"), Bayer cites so–called kinase inhibitors and antiangiogenic active substances – they prevent the supply of nutrients to the tumor. The company is proud of the development of the targeted drug nexavar – it acts only on the tumor, without affecting healthy cells.
AstraZeneca Russia cites another example of innovative treatment of lung cancer based on an individual approach. So, knowing that on the basis of molecular genetic testing, it is possible to identify a group of patients for whom the proposed therapy will be most effective, they are working with Russian experts from seven centers throughout Russia to create the possibility of correct and, most importantly, timely identification of this group of patients and, as a result, individualize therapy everyone. "This is the future. More and more innovative tools that we are developing now, especially in the field of oncology, are designed specifically for targeted therapy of certain groups of patients," says Frederic Girard, President of AstraZeneca Russia.
Pharmaceutical companies note that the role of prevention and diagnosis of diseases will reach a qualitatively new level, which will help prevent the disease in the early stages or avoid it altogether. Bayer HealthCare, noting that the approach to cancer treatment will become more individualized, considers it promising to determine in advance for which patient which active substances will be most effective in order to ensure the highest possible effectiveness of therapy.
Thus, there are already all the prerequisites for the transformation of pharmaceutical companies into something more than just tablet manufacturers. As knowledge accumulates, a large number of systemic discoveries will be made that will change our ideas about pharmaceuticals, the developers of new drugs are convinced. "It is obvious that the industrial model according to which pharmaceutical companies have been successfully operating for many years – to flood the world with blockbusters – must change. After some time, they will create not only medicines, but also complex treatment solutions, and this is already happening now," concludes Dmitry Morozov, chairman of the Board of Directors of Biocad.
Doctor of Innovation
The role of doctors is also being transformed. It will gradually decrease over time, and the palm tree in the pharmaceutical-medicine union will pass to pharmaceutical companies. Drug developers already present absolutely fantastic hypotheses: doctors will have the role of an intermediary in the future – when the drug is developed individually for each person and the pharmaceutical company that creates such a drug will offer a treatment method, and the doctor will only have to monitor the patient's condition.
The role of a doctor should change in a new level of healthcare system based on uniform standards of treatment, and this is the future. According to Dmitry Morozov, reaching a new level is possible with the creation of an expert system consisting of medical institutes, associations of doctors, insurance and pharmaceutical companies. In such a system, the most valuable experience, knowledge and methods of treatment, the best practices of the use of drugs that have shown their effectiveness are concentrated and regulated. "Thus, the patient is not dealing directly with a doctor who determines how to treat him, but with a system of treatment methods and certain medications that are guaranteed to cure him. Already, many doctors are working on such algorithms," says Dmitry Morozov.
The concept that pharmaceutical companies will be able to offer diagnostics and therapy in the future also has opponents, mainly from the medical community. Georgy Komarov, Vice-president of the Russian Medical Association, Honored Doctor of Russia, believes that pharmaceutical companies will not be able to even partially replace the healthcare system by offering treatment technologies, since doctors should determine the treatment method. "The task of pharmacists is to develop medicines, to discover new ones. If pharmaceuticals will offer methods of treatment, then treatment will turn into trade, and this is a harmful thing," Georgy Komarov is convinced. When diagnosing, pharmaceutical companies offer treatment with their own drugs, their own treatment methods, which, in fact, restricts the freedom of choice of therapy, the medical community notes.
However, even supporters of the approach "everyone should do their own thing: pharmacists should create medicines, and doctors should treat" recognize the need to unite pharmacists and doctors, as they say, in the name of future achievements. Thus, the president of AstraZeneca Russia, Frederic Girard, notes that new drugs are more and more complex in molecular structure, so the company works closely with medical specialists. "But in the future, the role of pharmaceutical companies as a locomotive of progress in the field of pharmaceutical innovations and the development of medical science will remain unchanged," said Irina Gushchina, Pfizer's representative in Russia.
Individual tabletRAFAEL ANTUNES, Vice President of Hovione (Portugal), believes that the future of medicine and pharmacology lies with personal methods and treatment drugs.
– At the CPhl China 2010 Pharmaceutical Forum (June 2-4, Shanghai.– Kommersant), you said that target drugs will be in demand in the future. Do you think that pharmaceutical companies will soon really focus on the production of individual medicines and related treatment methods?
– I think that individual therapy will be really in demand and will show significant growth in the near future. While this is not being talked about loudly and plans are not being made public, but this is a sector that companies will definitely think about in the future. This is my expert assessment.
– Do you think that such a business as the creation and development of specialized therapy is a promising direction for pharmaceutical companies?
– It's too early to talk about the trend, but it's true. Individual drugs are the future. This will be especially in demand for the treatment of rare diseases for which individual drugs and techniques are needed. First of all, this is oncology, diseases of the nervous system.
– Is it possible to say that everyone will be able to receive an individual pill and personal treatment in the future?
– Well, if he has a lot, then why not? Creating individual medicines is a very expensive pleasure. So far, we are talking only about the treatment of rare diseases, and not the mass production of such drugs. What companies do not make a profit, they will not do, which is why now they mostly focus on the mass patient. And investing in such an industry as individual therapy requires a lot of investment, and long-term. Perhaps, with the development of science, pharmaceuticals will move in this direction – to create individual medicines for everyone.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru18.06.2010