Category: Personalized Medicine

27-01-2012 09:48 From ASH 2011 – K. Stephen Suh, Ph.D., Director of Genomics and Biomarkers Program at the John Theurer Cancer Center at the Hackensack University Medical Center, discusses personalized medicine, genomics and biomarkers. For more information, please visit The John Theurer Cancer Center website at: www.humccancer.org

View original post here:
Personalized Medicine, Genomics and Biomarkers – Interview with K. Stephen Suh, Ph.D. – Video

What type of healthcare financing and business models nurture entrepreneurship? Which novel approaches are enabling innovation? What does the future hold for personalized medicine?

View post:
MIT Sloan BioInnovations Conference to Spotlight New Trends in Entrepreneurship, Financing, Personalized Medicine and …

NEW YORK, NY–(Marketwire -02/02/12)- TriMarkPublications.com cites in its newly published “Companion Diagnostics in Personalized Medicine and Cancer” report that the companion diagnostics market will explode as the personalized medicine market catapults to $42 billion by 2015. For more information, visit: http://www.trimarkpublications.com/products/Companion-Diagnostics-in-Personalized-Medicine-and-Cancer-Therapy.html.

Companion diagnostics is the use of genetic variation (e.g., SNPs, gene expression variability and other molecular signatures) to detect different patient responses to particular drugs or biologic agents in order to understand and correlate their individual differential responses to pharmaceutical agents. Companion diagnostics can be deployed clinically to stratify patients based on their response to certain therapeutic agents, known as personalized medicine, and companion diagnostics will also play an increasingly important role in cancer treatments over the forecast period.

The “Companion Diagnostics in Personalized Medicine and Cancer” report covers:

Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Assay, Individualized Warfarin Therapy and other uses of companion diagnostics in clinical situations IVDMIA, Irinotecan and UGT1A1, Tyrosine Kinase and other cancer biomarker tests MGMT Methylation Assay and other pharmacogenomics tests Recurrence prediction tests Blood-based technologies Proteomics Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)

The “Companion Diagnostics in Personalized Medicine and Cancer” report examines companies manufacturing companion diagnostics equipment and supplies in the world. Companies covered include: 20/20 GeneSystems, Abbott, Affymetrix, Agendia, Agilent, Almac, AMDL, Applied, Asuragen, Aureon, BD, Beckman Coulter, BioCurex, Biomarker, Biomedical, Biomerica, bioMérieux, Biomira, BioModa, Clarient, Claros, Correlogic, CytoCore, Cytogen, Dako, DiaDexus, DiagnoCure, DRG, EDP, Eisai, EXACT, Exagen, Gene Logic, Genesis, Genomic, Health Ikonisys, Illumina, Incyte, InterGenetics, Ipsogen, Johnson & Johnson, LabCorp, Life, Matritech, Miraculins, Monogram, Myriad, NimbleGen, Northwest, Nycomed, Oncotech, Oncothyreon, Orion, Oxford, Polymedco, Power3, Prometheus, Proteome, Qiagen, Roche, SensiGen, Siemens, SuperArray, Tosoh, TrimGen, Upstream, Veridex, Vermillion and Vertex.

Detailed charts with sales forecasts and marketshare data are included. For more information, visit: http://www.trimarkpublications.com/products/Companion-Diagnostics-in-Personalized-Medicine-and-Cancer-Therapy.html.

About TriMarkPublications.com

TriMarkPublications.com is a global leader in the biotechnology, healthcare and life sciences market research publishing. For more information, please visit http://www.trimarkpublications.com.

Important Notice

The statements contained in this news release that are forward-looking are based on current expectations that are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks, and actual results may differ materially.

Here is the original post:
Companion Diagnostics Market to Explode as Personalized Medicine Market Catapults to $42 Billion by 2015

The Harper Government today announced an important investment that will help Canadians in getting more effective treatments and make the healthcare system more sustainable through personalized medicine.

Go here to read the rest:
Canadian Government announces investment in personalized medicine

31-01-2012 08:03 The drug Kalydeco has been approved to treat patients with one of the mutations that cause cystic fibrosis. FDA’s Stephen Spielberg, MD, Ph.D, tells how this targeted treatment represents how personalized medicine will revolutionize health care.

More here:
Cystic Fibrosis Drug is Personalized Medicine – Video

The federal health minister says the government would like to move away from “one size fits all” medicine.

Read the rest here:
Personalized medicine could soon be reality

OTTAWA , Feb. 1, 2012 /CNW/ – The following is a statement by Russell Williams , President of Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (Rx&D) on the announcement by the Government of Canada today to ensure that personalized medicine will allow for more effective treatments, thus supporting our Canadian health care system in a more sustainable way.

“Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies welcome this commitment by the Government of Canada to establish personalized medicine as the way to transform the delivery of health care to patients.

“At Rx&D, we believe that providing the right medicine with the right dose to the right patient at the right time is crucial to improving health outcomes for Canadians. With the rise of chronic disease and an aging population, all governments are grappling with unprecedented demand for health care services. It is clear that we face a collective challenge to sustain and improve our health care system where traditional approaches are no longer efficient.

“We commend the Government of Canada's commitment to engage in this work. Pharmaceutical innovation is a proven tool to help Canadians live longer, healthier, more productive lives. It is critical to the future productivity of our country, our workplaces, our communities and our citizens. Innovation is essential for “patient-centered” care.

“The development of new and more effective medicines and vaccines continues to change the face of health care in Canada . Canadians now survive life threatening illnesses and live with chronic conditions in ways not possible for previous generations.

“We applaud the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Genome Canada and the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium for their vision and leadership to develop and implement a scientific innovation that will result in better health for Canadians.”

About Rx&D

Rx&D is the association of leading research-based pharmaceutical companies dedicated to improving the health of Canadians through the discovery and development of new medicines and vaccines. Our community represents 15,000 men and women working for 50 member companies and invests more than $1 billion in research and development each year to fuel Canada's knowledge-based economy. Guided by our Code of Ethical Practices, our membership is committed to working in partnership with governments, healthcare professionals and stakeholders in a highly ethical manner.

Go here to read the rest:
Statement – Rx&D Applauds Government of Canada for Investing in Personalized Medicine

OTTAWA — Personalized medicine — a genetics-based, patient-focused treatment method — received a major boost from the federal government Tuesday, which announced $67.5 million in joint funding.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq unveiled a research competition to dole out $22.5 million from Health Canada's research agency — the Canadian Institutes of Health Research — along with $40 million from Genome Canada and $5 million from the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium.

“Today . . . we are developing new technologies that can map out patients' unique genetic signatures and other biomarkers of the disease that afflicts them,” Aglukkaq said. “With these biomarkers, doctors will be able to tailor treatments based on what we know about the patient being treated. This holds the potential to make many medical treatments more effective and to identify the patients who will benefit.”

The competition for funding will be led by Genome Canada, a not-for-profit corporation that funds large, broad-based research projects in genomics. Researchers applying for grants will be eligible only if they have matching funds from the private sector, universities, international funding agents or another level of government.

Once researchers secure funding, it will last for a maximum of four years.

Funding is being allocated for all types of disease and will be offered to only the most developed avenues with the highest chance of being applied in the health-care system, according to the president of Genome Canada, Pierre Meulien.

“We decided not to focus on (one disease) because we do not know which projects are the most mature in Canada today on this topic,” Meulien said.

Each project will be reviewed to international standards, he said. “We will be sure that only the most mature and most promising topics will be funded through this program.

“At Genome Canada, we're supporting this work, we're excited by it, because we have the capacity to deliver on this something that was unimaginable five years ago,” Meulien said. “Though we're naturally advancing the frontiers of genomic sciences, our work is more about delivering new applications that make a social or economic difference — that's the power of innovation.”

The scientific director for the Institute of Cancer Research, a part of CIHR, said there are already several projects up and running, particularly in cancer research.

Morag Park said there also are possibilities for pre-emptive care: identifying certain gene markers in patients, who can then make changes in lifestyle, such as forgoing red meat, to reduce the risk of certain illnesses.

She said while personalized medicine likely won't lead to a cure for cancer, there is the possibility that it could become more of a managed chronic illness.

One method of identification used in personalized medicine is by finding Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) — minor variations in DNA that can identify who responds well to treatments such as chemotherapy.

“There's already change occurring in breast cancer, where indeed, some individuals are identified to not have any benefit from chemotherapy,” Park said.

Park said identifying a patient's SNPs can show, for example, whether chemotherapy might cause a child to go deaf or to develop another developmental disability and to personalize a cancer treatment to avoid such complications.

Minister of State for Science and Technology Gary Goodyear said the research could help improve the public's overall health and ensure sustainability in the health-care system.

“The care patients will receive is designed expressly, uniquely and is customized for them. In this approach, health care is projected to evolve from the one-size-fits-all to one individualized preventive and precision care,” Goodyear said.

“This will be better health care in a more timely fashion, more economically friendly to Canadians.”

rhiltz@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/robert_hiltz

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

More:
Federal government funds research into 'personalized medicine'

OTTAWA – The federal government will devote $67.5 million to research into tailoring medical treatments to fit individual patients by studying genetic markers and other disease indicators.

The money will be funnelled through Genome Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium.

Researchers can get grants for programs lasting up to four years, but will have to line up matching funds from other sources before they are eligible to tap the government money.

The program would look at a range of diseases and conditions, including cancer, mental health problems, skin diseases and rare diseases.

The idea is to develop a set of tools to allow treatments to be customized to the patient's genetic markers.

For example, a treatment might be of no help to people with certain genetic characteristics and knowing that in advance could save time and resources.

It's a move from the one-size-fits-all model that characterizes many of today's treatments, Health Canada said in a news release Tuesday.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq said the research could pay big dividends by changing the way care is delivered.

“The potential to understand a person's genetic makeup and the specific character of their illness in order to best determine their treatment will significantly improve the quality of life for patients and their families and may show us the way to an improved health-care system,” she said in a statement.

Read the original post:
Feds to fund research into 'personalized medicine' to tailor medical care

Behavorial health personalized medicine company AssureRx Health has secured an $8 million line of credit as it looks to boost adoption of its genetic screening test for psychiatric drugs. Along with an $11 million series B round of funding that the company obtained last year, the line of credit will help fund the development of several [...]

Continue reading here:
Personalized medicine testmaker secures $8M line of credit

The federal government announced Tuesday it is investing $67.5 million into a “personalized medicine” health care strategy that will factor in a patient's genetics and the specific character of their illness before customizing a treatment plan.

Read the original:
Feds invest $67.5M into 'personalized medicine'

Public release date: 31-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Adele Blanchard
ablanchard@cihr.gc.ca
613-946-3308
Canadian Institutes of Health Research

This press release is available in French.

Ottawa, Ontario — The Harper Government today announced an important investment that will help Canadians in getting more effective treatments and make the healthcare system more sustainable through personalized medicine. The announcement was made by the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of Health, and the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for Science and Technology.

“Our Government is committed to improving the quality of life of Canadians,” Minister Aglukkaq said. “The potential to understand a person's genetic makeup and the specific character of their illness in order to best determine their treatment will significantly improve the quality of life for patients and their families and may show us the way to an improved health care system and even save costs in certain circumstances.”

Personalized medicine offers the potential to transform the delivery of healthcare to patients. Healthcare will evolve from a reactive “one-size-fits-all” system towards a system of predictive, preventive, and precision care. Areas in which personalized approaches are particularly promising include oncology, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorders, diabetes and obesity, arthritis, pain, and Alzheimer's disease. In all of these fields, and others, a personalized molecular medicine approach is expected to lead to better health outcomes, improved treatments, and reduction in toxicity due to variable or adverse drug responses. For example, cancer patients would be screened to identify those for whom chemotherapy would be ineffective. In addition to saving on the costs of expensive drug treatments, this personalized treatment would prevent a great deal of suffering, while identifying and initiating earlier treatments that would be more effective.

“I applaud Genome Canada and the CIHR for their leadership in supporting research in personalized medicine,” said Minister Goodyear. “Innovative approaches like these lead to significant health benefits, enhance our knowledge within the medical arena and can be commercialized to help so many others worldwide.”

###

Genome Canada is leading the landmark research competition, with significant collaboration from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium (CSCC). To qualify for funding, researchers must obtain matching funding that at is least equal to that provided through the competition. Matching funding is typically derived from provincial, academic, private sector or international sources.

Fact Sheet

Further information:

Cailin Rodgers
Office of the Honourable Leona Aglukkaq
Federal Minister of Health
613-957-0200

Stephanie Thomas
Special Assistant (Communications)
Office of the Honourable Gary Goodyear
Minister of State (Science and Technology)
613-960-7728

David Coulombe
Media Relations
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
613-941-4563

Marlene Orton
Director, Media Relations
Genome Canada
613-751-4460 x119
BlackBerry: 613-295-1476

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's health research investment agency. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 14,100 health researchers and trainees across Canada. http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Genome Canada is a non-profit corporation employing an innovative business model based on funding and managing large-scale, multidisciplinary, internationally peer-reviewed genomics research projects in areas such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, the environment and human health. For more information, visit http://www.genomecanada.ca

The Cancer Stem Cell Consortium is a not-for-profit corporation that was incorporated in 2007 to coordinate an international strategy for cancer stem cell research and related translational activities. For more information, visit http://www.cancerstemcellconsortium.ca

[ | E-mail | Share ]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

View original post here:
Harper government invests in personalized medicine

Bionest Partners, a premier strategy and management consulting firm for life science industries, and a recognized leader in personalized medicine strategy consulting, announces the publication of an article in a supplement to the Dec.

The rest is here:
Bionest and PMC Address Optimization of Personalized Medicine Strategies

The federal government is pledging up to $67.5 million for research into “personalized medicine,” which tailors treatment to a patient's genetics and environment.

The funds will flow through Genome Canada, the Cancer Stem Cell Consortium and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the federal government's health research agency.

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Minister of State for Science Gary Goodyear made the announcement at the University of Ottawa's health campus Tuesday.

The field of personalized medicine is touted as having the potential to transform the way patients are treated. It looks at the genetic makeup of a person, the patient's environment and the exact course of a particular disease so that an appropriate and effective treatment can be tailored for that individual.

The idea is to move from a one-size-fits-all approach to one that is designed for a specific person and relies on the genetic signatures, or biomarkers, of both the patient and the disease.

Proponents of personalized medicine say it is likely to change the way drugs are developed, how medicines are prescribed and generally how illnesses are managed. They say it will shift the focus in health care from reaction to prevention, improve health outcomes, make drugs safer and mean fewer adverse drug reactions, and reduce costs to health-care systems.

“The potential to understand a person's genetic makeup and the specific character of their illness in order to best determine their treatment will significantly improve the quality of life for patients and their families and may show us the way to an improved health-care system and even save costs in certain circumstances,” Aglukkaq said in a news release.

Research projects could last four years

The sequencing of the human genome paved the way for personalized medicine and there have been calls for more research funding so that the discoveries in laboratories can be translated further into the medical field so they will benefit patients more.

Identifying a person's genetic profile, for example, could then indicate a susceptibility to a certain disease, if the biomarkers of that disease have also been discovered. If people know they are genetically at risk of an illness they can take actions to prevent it, and their health-care providers can monitor for it.

Cancer patients could be pre-screened to determine if chemotherapy would work for them, which could not only save a lot of money on expensive treatments but also prevent pain and suffering for patients.

Genome Canada is leading the research initiative, in collaboration with Cancer Stem Cell Consortium and CIHR which on Tuesday launched its Personalized Medicine Signature Initiative. CIHR is committing up to $22.5 million to the large-scale initiative with the other two partners, but it will be providing more funding for other projects under its personalized medicine program.

The research projects are aiming to bring together biomedical, clinical, population health, health economics, ethics and policy researchers to identify areas that are best suited to personalized medicine.

Oncology, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, psychiatric disorders, diabetes and obesity, arthritis, pain, and Alzheimer’s disease are all considered to be areas that hold promise for personalized medicine.

Funding will also go to projects that are aimed at developing more evidence-based and cost-effective approaches to health care.

Researchers can get up to four years of funding, but 50 per cent of their requested funding must be matched from another source, such as a provincial government or from the academic or private sectors.

Genome Canada, CIHR and the cancer consortium will invest a maximum of $5 million in each individual project.

The successful applicants for the $67.5 million worth of funding won't be announced until December.

The rest is here:
'Personalized medicine' gets $67.5M research boost

Selventa, a biomarker discovery company that enables personalized healthcare through the stratification of patients based on disease-driving mechanisms, recently announced a US patent that relates methods and techniques that facilitate discovery of biomarkers, thus aiding in the development of predictive and prognostic diagnostic tests for therapeutics targeting complex multi-factorial diseases.

The Massachusetts-based company uses molecular patient data to identify key disease-driving mechanisms. This information allows for acceleration of the development process to clarify therapeutic and diagnostic decisions through identification and development of biomarkers for patient stratification.

Selventa’s patent, U.S. Patent No 8,802,109, titled “Computer-aided Discovery of Biomarker Profiles in Complex Biological Systems,” was issued on December 20, 2011. The patent describes a method of biomarker discovery using a model representative of one or more causative biophysical or biochemical relationships underlying a biological state in the biological system of interest. A candidate set of biological data is then compared against the model to distinguish a candidate biomarker for the biological state. A sample received from a patient can then be assayed for the presence of the candidate biomarkers to discern a biological state of the patient.

According to David de Graaf, Ph.D., President and CEO of Selventa:

Using the technique, biomarkers may be developed to predict efficacy or toxic effects of a drug. This may permit a researcher or physician to know, in advance, whether the presenting patient will benefit from or be harmed by administration of the drug. In addition, the patented technique facilitates the development of biomarkers as diagnostics for a disease, as a means of making treatment decisions or as a means of stratifying patients in a clinical trial. This will likely improve the success of clinical trials by screening for subjects that are more likely to benefit from the drug and avoiding those who are unlikely to respond.

Source: Selventa

View post:
Biomarker discovery company’s patent advances personalized medicine

Everist Genomics announced Friday that its executive vice chairman, Alex Charlton, will speak about its breakthrough CardioDefender Device at the Wearable Technologies Conference Monday in Munich, Germany.

See the article here:
Smartphone Tech Meets Personalized Medicine: Everist CardioDefender

24-01-2012 10:25 On January 17th, 2012, the CIRM Governing Board heard from scientists and a patient about the essential role of genomics in the development of stem cell based therapies.

Read more:
Craig Venter: Understanding Our Genes – A Step to Personalized Medicine | CIRM Spotlight on Genomics – Video

BETHLEHEM, Pa., Jan. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Saladax Biomedical, Inc., a privately-held company developing and commercializing novel diagnostic assays to achieve the promise of personalized medicine for …

Read the original post:
Saladax Biomedical, Inc. Announces the Resignation of Edward L. Erickson as President and Chief Executive Officer

26-01-2012 02:43 Genome British Columbia Winter Symposium 2012 – Personalized Medicine Q

Continue reading here:
Winter Symposium 2012 – Personalized Medicine Q

BOSTON, Jan. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – CBI announced today that Bryan Loy, Physician Lead, Cancer; Vice President, Market Medical Officer, Humana, will Co-Chair the 4th Annual Forum for Payers on Personalized …

Read more:
Co-Chair Announced for 4th Annual Forum for Payers on Personalized Medicine — Dr. Bryan Loy, Physician Lead, Cancer …