PRECISION MEDICINE IS GAINING TRACTION
While the article is behind the WSJ paywall, these two quotes capture the benefits of this new approach:
“What we’re seeing is the beginning of a revolution in therapeutics,” says Janet Woodcock, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. “We can only hope that this gets us to where cancer is managed or curable.”
The “precision medicine approach requires people to change the way they look at opportunities,” says Mace Rothenberg, a senior vice president who heads cancer clinical development for Pfizer. Instead of trying to apply a drug to the largest number of patients possible, it is possible to “demonstrate very significant value of the drug to the patient, the physician, the payers and the company.”
The author balances this enthusiam with caution that resistance can mount quickly even to precision drugs, finding trials is difficult, and success comes only to a subset of patients.
However, this is a promising new approach for NF and other genetic disorders. While the article doesn’t explicitly note it, this area of research highlights the importance of a robust patient registry. If you have NF and have not registered yet, please visit the NF Registry today and sign up.
JWR
