Abstract

Oncology and Beyond : PHC Approaches and the Benefit to Patients / Healthcare

Jean-Jacques Palombo, Senior Vice President, Roche

Medical need for a more patient-tailored approach has resulted in a greater number of targeted therapies focused on treating better defined patient groups. Within the past few years, Roche has embarked on a systematic approach for the development of medicines, interweaving diagnostic and pharmaceutical expertise to pave the way for Personalised Healthcare (PHC). Up until now, this has happened mostly in the fields of oncology, and virology, and new developments will address equally high areas of unmet medical need such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). AD represents an increasing problem as the overall population ages. The identification of reliable biomarkers of AD has, therefore, become increasingly important. This is not only for risk prediction and diagnosis in order to provide appropriate care, but also to identify those patients at high risk of AD development who may be eligible for inclusion in clinical trials of novel therapies being tested at the early stages of the disease when treatments may potentially yield the greatest benefits. It is clear that the growing number of game-changing targeted therapies in development will require ever more innovative diagnostic tools to guide their use. Their limited number of PHC approaches suggests there are still many challenges, as well as opportunities in this emerging field of medicine.