evotec_Nov23_PanOmicsDriven - 5

PRECISION
MEDICINE
MARSHALS ITS
RESOURCES
Blueprint Medicines leverages its computational and cell biology expertise
to identify kinase drivers of disease and develop potent and selective kinase
inhibitors. One of Blueprint's commercially approved drugs is avapritinib,
an inhibitor of activated KIT and PDGFRA mutant kinases. When the
drug binds its target (as shown here), it blocks the activity of an abnormal
receptor responsible for uncontrolled cell multiplication in certain cancers.
Better coordination in precision medicine is evident in tighter diagnostic screens,
deeper pathway analyses, narrower " practice gaps, " and broader data sets.
One may fail when one simply lacks the resources
to succeed. That's painful enough. But how much
more painful is it to fail when one does have the
resources, but deploys them poorly? That greater
pain is something that the leaders of precision
medicine mean to avoid. Many of these leaders met
at the 16th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference,
which was held last May in San Diego. There
they participated in " a cross-sector exchange of
perspectives on the scientific, business, and policy
issues influencing the status and outlook for personalized
medicine. "
At this event, many presenters emphasized the
need for coordination. Precision medicine, they
agreed, would struggle to succeed if its greatest
assets were to languish in isolation. What use, they
asked, is diagnostic acumen if panel tests are less
than comprehensive? What use are genomically
identified targets if they remain unexplored? What
use are cell-based therapies if patients who could
benefit are not screened or informed of their options
in systematic ways? What good are data sets that
are scattered rather than unified and capable of
presenting 360-degree views of each patient's health
information?
To revisit these questions, GEN spoke with several
Precision Health Conference presenters. They share
their insights here. Besides describing how precision
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evotec_Nov23_PanOmicsDriven

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