Translational development phase in personalised medicine a focus group with industry.

On May 26th 2021, the first working session organised in the context of PERMIT’s WP5, translational development of patient-stratification processes, was held as a virtual meeting. It analysed the pharmaceutical industry perspective on preclinical research for personalised medicine.  The focus group gathered nearly 10 experts from different companies across Europe and one regulator to discuss the preclinical strategies for patient stratification currently undertaken by the industry.

The afternoon kicked off with an introduction, the presentation of the results from the scoping review and the industry survey, carried out during the first year of PERMIT project. This was followed by an interesting and instructive discussion. Among others, relevant points highlighted through the discussion were the promotion of an early dialogue between scientists and regulators as well as the importance of quality and reproducibility of preclinical models.

The outcome of the meeting enabled a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities in the translational development phase of personalised medicine clinical trials, which will be further discussed in a dedicated workshop entitled “Recommendations for more robust and reproducible preclinical research in personalised medicine” scheduled for Wednesday, September 1st.