Imagine a treatment which could cure cancer in patients with blue eyes but not those with brown. Doctors would prescribe it to the patients who they knew would benefit, but seek out a different treatment for brown-eyed sufferers. This personalised approach, which can help to save time, money and potentially lives, is seen by some as the the future of medicine.
The development of drugs tailored to treat patients with certain genetic profiles represents a growing trend among pharmaceutical companies, but identifying genes associated with specific clinical conditions is far from straightforward. Oxford Biodynamics (OBD) has developed proprietary technology to make that task easier. Its EpiSwitch platform is used by pharma companies and research institutions to help develop drugs in specific patient populations. In exchange, ODB receives service fees, which broke the £1m mark for the first time in the reported period.