The problem of giving drugs to patients who do not benefit from them is huge. Studies show that most drugs prescribed in the U.S. today are effective in fewer than 60% of treated patients.
Consider the percentages of patients for whom the following widely prescribed classes of drugs are, according to a recent study, either “ineffective” or “not completely effective”: at least 70% of patients who take the cardiovascular drugs known as ACE inhibitors and beta-blockers; nearly 40% of the people prescribed antidepressants; and at least 30% of both the patients given statins for high cholesterol and those given beta2-agonists for asthma.
The number of diseases that can be precisely diagnosed and then treated with a highly specific therapy is certain to increase dramatically within the decade.
In the past five years, oncology drugs for patients with specific genetic characteristics have soared from about 10% to more than 40% of those in clinical trials (phases one, two, and three).
Although cancer diagnosis and therapy are at the forefront of progress in this area, similar developments are occurring in other medical subspecialties.