- Biomarkers to Open the Door to Personalized Medicine and Represents a Seismic Shift for the Pharma Industry
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PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, April 29PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, April 29 /PRNewswire/ -- The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters today announced the launch of a new biomarkers report, "Establishing the Standards in Biomarker Research" which gives a detailed introduction to the world of biomarkers, an overview of the regulatory context surrounding them, and highlights ongoing biomarker research in some of the world's leading Pharma companies.
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Thomson Reuters has chosen to highlight advances in biomarker research because of its capacity to change the way Pharma companies do business. Biomarkers which are blood-based tests, gene sequences or mutations, mRNA expression profiles or tissue proteins, provide unparalleled evidence of the state of an organism, or indicate normal biological processes, pathogenic processes or pharmacological responses to a therapeutic intervention.
"Biomarkers seem destined to prove one of the major drivers of pharmaceutical research and drug development in the 21st century," said Jon Brett-Harris, EVP Pharmaceutical and Chemicals Markets, Thomson Reuters. "For example, the presence of a specific antibody in the blood might indicate a specific infection. Once an association between a biomarker and a disease is clearly established, the one can be used to signal the other, and to a high degree of certainty. As well, changes in the prevalence of a biomarker in the organism can immediately and reliably signpost a patient's response to treatment."
Some pharmaceutical companies are already advancing their research and harnessing the power of biomarkers, which can:
-- Be used to detect the predisposition for disease in a population, screen for its presence, confirm its diagnosis, assess its severity, predict its response to available therapies and measure its clinical course -- Be used as targets to discover new drugs -- Be a decisive factor in determining whether or not to continue research on an entity -- Show early in the development phase whether an entity could lead to side effects that should terminate further research -- Help to make clinical trials more efficient -- Reduce treatment overheads by optimizing dosages and measuring a patient's response more quickly and accurately
It is believed that every drug process may have a number of biomarkers associated with it. Most scientists already use a core set of biomarkers, but this is insignificant when compared to the thousands of biomarkers that may exist and have yet to be discovered, documented or quantified. The new Thomson Reuters biomarker report suggests that the disease areas at the forefront of the drive to discover new biomarkers are: cancer, cardiology, neurology, and metabolic, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases.
However, although biomarkers represent the future of drug development, Thomson Reuters analysis has found broad differences in the Pharma industry's approach to them. Some innovators have important biomarker research projects progressing, while many others have yet to attempt any research at all.
In spite of this, biomarkers are clearly at the top of the agenda for regulatory authorities. The FDA has recognized that biomarkers are an area of supreme importance to pharmaceutical innovation and personalized medicine and is seeking to create a new framework for regulatory acceptance. Other agencies, including the EMEA, are engaging with same process. In Japan, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, have proposed biomarker development as a national project, and are actively promoting biomarker research.
To read the full report, "Establishing the Standards in Biomarker Research", please register online at: http://scientific.thomson.com/forms/biomarkers/
The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters provides information and knowledge to accelerate research, discovery and innovation. Its authoritative, accurate and timely information is essential for drug companies to discover new drugs and get them to market faster; researchers to find relevant papers and know what's newly published in their subject; and businesses to optimize their intellectual property and find competitive intelligence. We create the research platforms and services of the future that will power our customers toward business and personal success.
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CONTACTS Eoin Bedford PR Manager Scientific +44-(0)207-433-4691 eoin.bedford@thomsonreuters.com Web site: http://www.thomsonreuters.com http://scientific.thomson.com/forms/biomarkers
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