The personalized medicine market heats up

One of the markets that’s got the industry most excited lately is personalized medicine – the use of detailed diagnostics to determine individualized medical treatments. Little wonder that the approach is garnering attention, as the number of stakeholders seeing new ways to benefit seems to grow daily. Think platform tool providers, whose imaging and genetic tests are going to be relied on in completely new ways. Think pharma companies, who’ll be able to increase their shot at getting drugs through clinical trials by weeding out non-responders in advance. And of course, think hospitals and physicians, who’ll be able to pinpoint treatments that will get patients better sooner and decrease toxicity and other negative side effects. 

Cardiovascular disease is good example of personalized medicine in full swing. In the past, a cardiovascular patient’s newly-prescribed blood thinner often became a mini science experiment. Too high a dosage could mean hemorrhage; too low a dosage, and clots could land patients them back in the OR. Today, a quick (genetic) blood test determines optimal dose and is radically reducing hospitalization rates.  

But where more and more industry people are really expecting to find pay dirt is with the application of this kind of customization to an intractable problem like breast cancer.
We’re thankfully already past the time when the disease was identified and treated almost exclusively according to its tissue of origin – a crude categorization, as breast cancers are not all the same – but we’re far from where personalized medicine will be taking us soon. Today, genetic testing allows several cancers to be typed and paired with individualized therapy, and the area is expanding fast. 

Genomic Health, Agendia and Myriad have diagnostic tests that can help pair patients with the most effective treatment regime, in effect personalizing their treatments. Multi-gene tests, such as Agendia’s MammaPrint™, include more genetic information, and are advancing the field. And that’s just the beginning. 

A guy to watch in personalized medicine is Raju Kucherlapati, Ph.D., Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School.  He is definitely a key thought leader driving this field forward, and he’s a truly lovely person, to boot. He also organizes a great, not-to-be-missed conference through Harvard and Partners every November. 

We expect to be placing more and more leaders and researchers in personalized-medicine-related fields this year. Kind of nice when a big new idea promises a healthy future for us all medically – and financially, too!

Where will tomorrow's leaders emerge?

I know, I know – you’re busy and your budget is tight. All the more reason to help young scientists and entrepreneurs advance. Student internships are an excellent way to add additional horsepower to a tactical project while helping train our next "best and brightest." At Flagship Ventures, I engaged a number of the MIT Harvard e-Lab graduate students. They did an excellent job developing competitive landscapes, researching markets and conducting due diligence on new companies and opportunities we were considering. Many of the [executives in my network] and I have found that hiring summer lab interns can help defray the workload pinch when full timers go on vacation. And what a great way for a student to learn how sequence DNA or write a business plan!

This year the Mass Life Science Center has announced a renewal of their internship program. Last year’s program received almost 900 applications and placed 170 interns at 94 companies throughout Massachusetts. If you are a student of a Massachusetts college or university, or are a Massachusetts resident attending an out-of-state college or university, consider applying to this great program. If you are a company, consider helping to train the next generation of leaders. Who knows? That summer intern may become a valuable full time addition to your company.

Spring is in the air and — cautiously — so are IPOs and buyouts.

Venture capital and investment funding continue to be tight for emerging companies, but the first glimmers of hope are out there – really BG Medicine, which I had the pleasure to help found, successfully launched their IPO on NASDAQ in February. Granted, they didn’t raise as much as they’d hoped in 2008; but they now have the capital to continue their biomarker/cardiovascular plans. February also saw about $75 million raised by Fluidigm, an emerging leader in microfluidics and genomics. After spending their first few years developing a protein crystallization platform, Fluidigm has wisely moved into the larger RT-PCR genomics market and are peripherally selling into the Next Gen Sequencing area.  

Next Gen Sequencing itself has been surrounded by doldrum-defying activity for a while now, and the continuation of this trend adds to the promise of a springtime economic thaw. It started in with Life Technologies spectacular acquisition of Ion Torrents. Will they hit all their milestone payments to earn the $750M?  I'd put my money on Jonathan Rothberg any day and so far it looks good. Complete Genomics, a Next Gen Sequencing service provider, contributed to the buzz by successfully raising $54M in an IPO in November.

On the diagnostics side of things, Quest Diagnostics is in buying mode and just purchased Athena Diagnostics, a small diagnostics service, for $740 million in cash. It’s a move that will help make Quest a leader in neurological disorder testing. They’ve also announced they’re buying Celera Corporation for $671 million.

It’s beginning to look like these events are part of a fresh start: an upswing in investments and in exit strategies for new companies with solid technologies and market opportunities.  Here’s to spring!