With precision medicine industry expected to grow rapidly with the advancement of genomics, physicians’ capability to analyze big data and utilize artificial intelligence (AI) will become more significant in the future, a report said.
The Biotech Policy Research Center on Thursday released the report on the status of the global precision medicine market and its outlook.
Precision medicine helps optimize the prevention and management of chronic diseases such as cancer and heart disease, according to the report. “The Precision Medicine Initiative (PMI) and related policies are expected to be enforced. This will accelerate genomic research under public health programs such as consumer health programs and censuses,” the report said.
The research center predicted that the government would push a policy to provide national-level precision medicine and make active investments in the next several years.
The global precision medicine market is expected to grow at an annual rate of 13.3 percent from 53.5 trillion won ($47 billion) in 2017 to 112.9 trillion won in 2023, the report noted.
“The precision medicine industry is at a nascent stage with a promising growth outlook. Omics analysis, big data, and AI technology advancement will drive market growth,” the report said. Omics refers to a field of study in biology ending in “-omics,” such as genomics and proteomics.
“Increasing medical costs due to the global population aging, rising incidence of serious illnesses, and each government’s push to nurture precision medicine are also boosting the industry growth,” it added.
The research center noted that growth opportunities for precision medicine industry include the government’s implementation of industry support policy at national level, reduction of genome cost with the advancement of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, genome editing, and the advent of cutting-edge technologies such as big data analysis.
However, downside risks for precision medicine include regulatory and ethical issues involving the use of personal genome data, lack of standardization, high costs, and untrained physicians, the report said.
“Primary care providers (physicians) in general have not been trained to process genetic data or to manage patients using genomics,” the center said. “We need to train and educate physicians to help them analyze and utilize genetic data to improve patients’ health.”