title: Pharmaceutical industry overview: optimal drug therapy.
abstract: Today's revolutionary genomics research is the key to the search for tomorrow's new drugs. Over the next 10 to 20 years, there could be 15 times the number of therapeutic agents that there are today. With these scientific advances, optimal drug therapy becomes an even more significant component of health care. Canada's Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies have proposed a therapeutic management system designed to make the optimum use of health care while controlling costs. The proposal is based on the disease management approach, applied first to diseases that are the most widespread in the population and that represent the highest costs for the health care system. The concept involves comparing the best available practices with the care provided and making the necessary adjustments to improve patients' health in line with the most cost effective approach. Preliminary results from similar programs underway in Canada, such as those in the field of asthma treatment, suggest that they can lead to improvements in the quality of care and represent a step forward in comparison with measures focusing only on cutting costs. The future will bring new challenges in achieving optimal drug therapy as genomics leads to tailor-made medications, necessitating changes in drug plan policies and reimbursement. With personalized treatment regimens and an increased understanding of how to prevent and treat diseases, optimal drug therapy can be taken to a new level. Quality of life can be further improved, more lives can be saved and the health care system can be saved more money while providing the best possible treatments.
authors.affiliation: Bayer Inc, Healthcare Division, Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada. philip.blake.b@bayer.com
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Blake
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D016527:Drug Costs; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations / Q000600:supply & distribution
chemical_list: D004364:Pharmaceutical Preparations