Personalised medicine market set to grow, says PricewaterhouseCoopers

Personalised medicine, or individualised treatment and care based on personal and genetic variation, is creating a booming market, says PricewaterhouseCoopers. But it is a disruptive innovation that will create opportunities and challenges for traditional healthcare and emerging market participants.

In its report, The Science of Personalised Medicine: Translating the Promise into Practice, PwC says it expects the US personalised medicine market will grow 11% annually from US$232bn to US$452bn by 2015. Its estimates are based on a broad view of the market beyond drugs and devices to include high-tech storage and data sharing as well as low-tech products and services aimed at heightening consumers" awareness of their own health risks.

According to the report, the core diagnostic and therapeutic segment of the market, comprising pharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics companies, currently worth around US$24bn, will grow by 10% annually, reaching US$42bn by 2015.

The personalised medical care portion of the market, including telemedicine, health information technology and disease management services offered by traditional health and technology companies, which is estimated to be worth US$4-12bn, could rise to more than US$100bn by 2015 if telemedicine takes off.

The promise of personalised medicine has been predicated upon advances in genomics, proteomics and metabolomics, completion of the human genome map and development of "targeted" diagnostics and therapeutics, says PwC.

"Medical science and technological advancement have converged with the growing emphasis on health, wellness and prevention sweeping the country to push personalised medicine to a tipping point," said David Levy, global healthcare leader at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"The market potential is enormous for any company that learns to leverage the science, target individuals and develop products and services that promote health."

PwC says how payers approach personalised medicine will be critical, as their reimbursement schemes will influence the business models of Pharma and diagnostic companies, as well as providers who depend on third-party payment.

Payers who want to embrace personalised medicine will have to rethink how they define insurance cover. Insurance premiums today are based on actuarial statistics that apply to large, predictable populations. By contrast, personalised medicine targets small populations, which are less predictable from an actuarial standpoint.

"There is an urgent need to increase the value of healthcare, but we can't get there by fixing the healthcare of yesterday. We need to replace our current focus on treating disease with a better approach that is personalised, preventive, predictive and participatory, the basic tenets of personalised medicine," said Gerald McDougall, principal in charge of personalised medicine and health sciences at PricewaterhouseCoopers.