Establishing Treatment Optimization as part of personalised medicine development
As new drugs come to the market, there is often limited knowledge on the dose, sequence, combination and duration of treatment for patients. At its 4th Access to Universal Medicines Affordable Medicines Forum on 14 November, EPHA announced it has joined the call from the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) to put patients at the heart of medicines development in a way which systematically investigates the optimal way to use them (known as applied research or Treatment Optimization) as new drugs are developed.
EORTC’s Manifesto calls for the EU, in partnership with Member States, to establish Treatment Optimization research as an official and mandatory step in the treatment access path to market (while ensuring it does not lead to further delays for patients to access innovative treatments); national legislation to allow publicly funded international research to address collective therapeutic challenges; and for Horizon Europe, the EU’s new framework programme for research and innovation, to include funding opportunities which support Treatment Optimization.
