Levin, O’Kelly Provide Perspective on Decades of Personalized Medicine Progress, Urge Action and Support

On Tuesday, May 8, 2012, the Personalized Medicine Coalition (PMC) welcomed our chairman, Stafford O’Kelly, President of Abbott Molecular and keynote speaker, Mark Levin, Partner and Co-Founder of Third Rock Ventures to its Eighth Annual State of Personalized Medicine Luncheon. The event brought together PMC’s members, partners and other stakeholders involved in realizing the future of personalized medicine for researchers, industry leaders, patients, caregivers, advocates and policymakers.

Stafford O’Kelly reminded us, in his introductory remarks, of the progress and success we’ve made toward achieving personalized medicine in practice within the past year alone. Just last week we saw that Xalkori is showing progress in fighting certain childhood cancers. O’Kelly pointed out the assurances by the FDA that co-approval of drugs and diagnostics will occur more frequently. He also challenged attendees to think about what they can do “to accelerate the shift toward personalized medicine in a way that will improve treatment outcomes for the patient while, at the same time, lower overall costs for our health care system.”

Mr. Levin sought to use his significant experience and background in venture capital, product development and marketing to answer O’Kelly’s provoking question during his keynote address. He urged attendees to support personalized medicine. He explained that “personalized medicine is one of the most important things in medicine today” and lauded its potential to reduce safety challenges, increase efficacy, and improve productivity in the pharmaceutical industry.

I agree that we are at a point where the scientific and clinical progress made in personalized medicine is undeniable. But to echo Stafford O’Kelly’s call to action:  “We need to get the right stakeholders involved to help develop pathways for accelerating growth in the field….We need commitment from payers, providers and patients.”  In order to continue to make progress against disease and improve outcomes for patients, it is necessary as O’Kelly and Levin said, for the entire ecosystem of players to focus efforts in the direction that scientific discovery points us – toward targeted, patient-centric approaches to research and care.

We hope to continue the discussion around these themes and the future of innovation, specifically in cancer research and care at “Turning the Tide Against Cancer Through Medical Innovation,” a national conference that the Personalized Medicine Coalition, American Association for Cancer Research and Feinstein Kean Healthcare are co-hosting on June 12, 2012.  I encourage you to join us in Washington, D.C. as we look to identify and build support for an environment that sustains innovation and drives our evolution toward personalized cancer care.