A Boost for Personalized Medicine

A joint investment of approximately 28 million Euros ($38 million) for seven projects may bring personalized medicine closer to reality by developing ways to deliver drugs to specific disease sites within the body. The funding originates from three institutes for life-science research in The Netherlands: the BioMedical Materials (BMM) program, the Center for Translational Molecular Medicine (CTMM), and Top Institute Pharma.

“Together with the development of tailored drug therapies, the imaging guide and targeted drug-delivery techniques that these newly focused projects aim to develop are widely regarded as one of the keys to highly personalized medicine,” according to a joint press release issued by the institutes.

The seven projects that have been awarded funding mainly target therapies for cardiovascular diseases and cancer, and will bring together 12 knowledge institutes and 14 industrial parties. The projects were chosen based on peer review and evaluation by an international advisory board following the submission of 25 draft proposals.

“With the pattern of diseases such as cancer being different in virtually every patient, personalized medicine is absolutely essential to improving patient outcomes,” said Hans Hoogervorst, chairman of CTMM’s supervisory board, in the press statement. “The outstanding quality of the proposals selected from the joint call should really help us to put personalized medicine into practice.”

“With this joint initiative of the three public–private partnerships in the Dutch life-sciences sector, The Netherlands stimulates collaboration and cooperation between industry and academia on a size and scale that is unique in Europe,” said Wim Deetmand, chairman of the BMM program’s executive board.