The Growth of Precision Medicine
Precision medicine is the idea that each patient is an individual, and therefore deserves an individualized treatment plan to secure the best outcomes. It is the movement away from the “one size fits all” approach. Not only does precision medicine ensure that the right medicine gets to the right patient, it also ensures they receive the treatment at the right time. In addition to obvious benefits for the patient such as reducing the risk of dangerous side effects, it can also reduce healthcare costs overall by reducing the chances that a patient will be given a therapy that isn’t effective. The medical community has made significant strides in this area in recent years, but we’re still far from where we need to be.
Some of the hurdles still present in the field of precision medicine involve non-diverse clinical trials, clinical trials with a small number of participants, vague definitions of “responders” to treatment, and the overhype of some “miracle therapies” whose chances of success are still quite low.
SomaLogic believes they can help precision medicine advance to where it needs to be.
SomaLogic
SomaLogic is a company that uses what they call a SOMAscan assay to analyze all of the proteins in a patient, giving them a comprehensive look at the individuals physiology at a given moment in time. They believe this information provides researchers a better picture of how the patient is responding to a particular treatment. Additionally, it could help patients receive a more accurate diagnosis. This in and of itself could help ensure that patients are given the right treatment for them as an individual, sooner.
In terms of clinical trials, SomaLogic believes that the use of their technology could provide more detailed definitions of “responders.”
They’ve used their technology in over 300,000 patient samples so far, spanning 50 diseases. They’ve investigated cardiovascular risk, how diet affects metabolic health, and various degenerative diseases, cancers, and rare conditions. For instance, these studies, examining Duchenne muscular dystrophy, provided new insights into the rate of muscle loss as well as new diagnostic measures. They also use their platform to identify individual’s risk of diabetes, pre-term birth, and other potential future complications.
You can read more about SomaLogic and how it may improve the analysis of precision medicine therapeutics here.
“There is no doubt that within the next few years we will have a way to determine… the most precise treatment for the individual.”
