Personalized Medicine in the pharmaceutical
industry
A digital revolution has transformed manufacturing, creating smart
factories and supply chains in the pharmaceutical industry 2.0.
Manufacturing is gaining traction in high-value industries. We should
consider what these technology-driven approaches can offer the
biopharmaceutical industry, specifically gene and cell therapies
[6].
The technology behind this development has been primarily influenced by
technological breakthroughs: First, computer chips, sensors, and
transmitters have become more affordable, which has paved the way for
more of them to be integrated into machines and products. Secondly, the
Internet has become accessible to almost everyone through wireless
networking, blurring the line between the physical and digital worlds
and allowing machines and products to interact directly and autonomously
[6].
As a result of these technologies, self-organizing systems can be
developed that collect and share data on a mass scale and make decisions
on their own. The pharmaceutical industry can benefit from other
technological advancements such as cloud computing, big data analytics,
which lets huge amounts of data be handled and analyzed in real-time,
and artificial intelligence, which lets computers learn and adapt.
Genomic analysis may be used by doctors to determine a person’s DNA form
and treat them appropriately. Companies will use this information to
develop improved drugs and expand the amount of marketable compounds, by
predicting new compound concepts based on genetic data for each
individual patient. Pharmaceutical companies can take less time to
develop new drugs if they have higher profit margins. As a result of
newer platforms for gene mapping, productivity has increased. In 1998,
the community produced 200 Mb of DNA per month, but by January 2003, the
DOE Joint Genome Institute sequenced 1.5 billion bases in a month
[7].
The world is finally getting its hands on personalized medicine more
than a decade after governments began anticipating it. A Precision
Medicine Initiative was announced by the US president in 2015.
Pharmaceutical industry leaders from across the world, think of
precision medicine as an opportunity. Despite internal and external
obstacles, few companies have been able to capitalize on the potential
of precision medicine. In spite of the promise of pharmacogenomics
technologies to enhance fundamental advances in the biological sciences
such as the discovery of disease-causing genes and new therapeutic
targets, it is also possible to raise industry concerns with products
designed with pharmacogenomics guidance for specific patient
populations[8].
Drug manufacturing is primarily driven by fixed costs associated with
research, development, and testing. As a result, the market is
fragmented as targeted treatments favor a smaller population. Due to
this, their future revenue sources are smaller, and thus their fixed
costs are more evenly distributed. Nevertheless, an improvement in the
sustainability of these targeted therapies, which would mean longer
market availability for personalized drugs instead of blockbuster drugs,
could theoretically compensate for these low potential revenues and
sales [9].