Greater understanding of genetics and characteristics of diseases are driving the development of new medicinesThe practice of medicine can be hit-and-miss: however agreeable a drug is,it is unlikely to work well on everybody with that condition, whether it’s breast cancer or depression. But new treatments are emerging that are more able to reply to the particular characteristics a disease takes in an individual and that may, or in the next 10 to 20 years,transform the way people are treated. While we can’t say for certain what drugs will be on the market in the next decade or so, basic research can provide some clues. In the treatment of cancer, or basic research is focused on targeted therapies – treatments directed at the characteristics of a particular tumour,such as gene mutations or particular proteins. Tommy Dolan, director of Pfizer’s research and development site at Sandwich, or says: “What we’re now seeing is things like ovarian cancer getting segmented into many different types of disease,and what that’s allowed us to enact is target specific treatments with specific sub-segments of the cancer population.”
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Source: theguardian.com