Summary Report

When looking at a person's genome, every human in the world is about 99% genetically similar. We differ in about 1% of our genome by our SNP's, which are single nucleotide polymorphisms. Personalized medicine is devoted to understanding the differences of this 1% difference and treating possible genetic disease risks. Personalized medicine is quickly becoming an innovative and realistic idea. Forbes says: with knowledge of an individuals genetic make-up, doctors will prescribe drugs with far better understanding of their efficacy for that particular individual. Whole gene sequencing is on the threshold of being cheap enough to dominate genotyping technology and commercial implementations are likely to increase. Cheap sequencing will also drive the need for better understanding of what to do with the data. Even if researchers isolate the genetic disorder, they don't necessarily have anything to do with it: yet! Genotyping will create the need for tools to store and analyze huge amounts of data, but currently there is no standard or methodology for its organization. "Genomics may be the next big thing after the internet and biotech. Finding those who can make money early on will likely pay dividends to investors.

Companies are catching on to personalized medicine, and have made genetic testing easier and easier for patients. People can now utilize at-home testing from companies such as 23 and Me, Navigenics, and deCODEme. This direct-to-consumer testing will mail results right to the person's home. However, one must be careful about interpreting the results, and at times different results can be found when using rival companies. People still have to make sure that they see their professional care provider to get their opinion on important issues such as genetic risk of disease. Also, doctors need to become more experienced in the personalized medicine arena so that they can advise their patients about results.

Prior to personalized medicine, drug companies have had a "one-drug-fits-all" mentality. They dont take into account the molecular profiles of each individual, meaning that some patients will experience symptom relief, while others may not, or may experience harmful side effects. A person's body can react to a certain dose differently to another. For example, Prozac is an antidepressant which has shown to affect a small portion of patients in a very harmful way. The book, Side Effects, written by Alison Bass, described how Prozac can produce suicidal thoughts in patients. Hopefully personalized medicine will lower the chances of side effects experienced in patients when exploring their genetic makeup. Pharmacogenomics is drastically going to affect the future development of certain blockbuster drugs that have made billions of dollars for treating certain diseases in molecularly different individuals. Is this going to level the playing field for pharmaceutical companies after we use a more personalized view on drugs instead of a one-drug-fits-all policy?

Personalized Medicine is also becomiong a big target of government spending as well, which can been seen through the large amounts of funding provided by the government. From 1983 until 1993 the budget of NIH (National Institute of Health) grew 158% from $4 billion to $10 billion. Then from 1993 to 2003 the buget increased another 163% to $27 billion. During the Bush administration the budget for NIH stayed at about $27 to $29 billion. But, with Obama talking there has been an even greater emphasis in health research as the recent stimulus plan allocated another $10.4 billion increase in funding to be spent on research before September 2010. The government is recognizing the importance of this new field by passing laws in the common work place such as the GINA Law. The Genetic Informational Nondiscrimination Act acts to protect an employee's career by making it illegal for companies to discriminate based upon genetic histories. Recently, companies have been peering into their employee's histories and making executive decisions such as layoffs after determining if a worker is at risk for a certain disease. The law marks the importance of how personalized medicine is becoming more popular.

Personalized medicine will inevitably be a part of health care very soon. However, we have to be careful not to thrust this idea into the health system too quickly. Genetic profiles have to be developed with precision and accuracy, to ensure the efficacy of personalized medicine.