Square peg, square hole - Unleashing the potential of genomics and personalised therapies

Brian: “You're all individuals” Crowd, en masse: “Yes, we are all individuals” It's unlikely that when John Cleese et al. sat down to write the above address in Monty Python's The Life of Brian, they did so with a knowing wink towards the healthcare industry's approach to treatment. But knowing wink or not, the default for medical intervention has naturally been homogenous, rather than personalised. Personalised and individualised therapy has long been the Holy Grail of the sector, but the barriers to entry have always been insurmountable. Cost, time, data accuracy, privacy, accessibility, limited evidence bases - one, perhaps two, of these, might be conquerable. Together they have presented an unscalable cliff face, until now. The rise in individualized ASO therapy and CAR-T therapeutics amongst others, and increased investment into the sector has breathed new life into the sector. Is this the dawning of a new age, or another false dawn in the rocky road to personalised care?