Personalised Medicine

Some medicine may work better for you - or not work at all. Efficacy of most drugs is remarkably poor - and that's before taking into account pharmaceutical companies only publish positive studies. Across a broad population, some drugs struggle to beat the efficacy of a placebo but may still inflict detrimental side effects.

We're finding more and more that some drugs work better for for people with certain characteristics in their DNA and even gene expression, as well as broader factors such as sex and health. Today, a doctor has to prescribe one drug, wait to see if it works, and then prescribe another one and another one until the most effective drug is found (no fault of the doctor - they have no way of knowing the best match). Soon they will be able to take a one drop of blood, perform an instant analysis, and select the best drug for you. And beyond that, rather than selecting the best matching drug for you, medicines may be designed for you exact condition and tailored perfectly to your individual body.