IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/33539.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

On the Economic Infeasibility of Personalized Medicine, and a Solution

Author

Listed:
  • Marina Chiara Garassino
  • Kunle Odunsi
  • Marciano Siniscalchi
  • Pietro Veronesi

Abstract

Technological advances and genomic sequencing opened the road to personalized medicine: specialized therapies targeted to patients displaying specific molecular alterations. For instance, targeted therapies are now available for 50% of lung cancer patients—with some alterations affecting less than 1% of patients—greatly increasing life expectancy. In an investment model of drug development, we show that current institutions mandating experimentation and approval of individual therapies eventually disincentivize investments in personalized medicine as researchers identify increasingly rare alterations. Recent AI-based technologies, such as AlphaFold3, make personalized medicine viable when regulatory approval regards the process for drug discovery rather than individual therapies.

Suggested Citation

  • Marina Chiara Garassino & Kunle Odunsi & Marciano Siniscalchi & Pietro Veronesi, 2025. "On the Economic Infeasibility of Personalized Medicine, and a Solution," NBER Working Papers 33539, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33539
    Note: AP CF EH PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w33539.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Josh Abramson & Jonas Adler & Jack Dunger & Richard Evans & Tim Green & Alexander Pritzel & Olaf Ronneberger & Lindsay Willmore & Andrew J. Ballard & Joshua Bambrick & Sebastian W. Bodenstein & David , 2024. "Accurate structure prediction of biomolecular interactions with AlphaFold 3," Nature, Nature, vol. 630(8016), pages 493-500, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Itxaso Anso & Samira Zouhir & Thibault Géry Sana & Petya Violinova Krasteva, 2024. "Structural basis for synthase activation and cellulose modification in the E. coli Type II Bcs secretion system," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Paloma García Casas & Michela Rossini & Linnea Påvénius & Mezida Saeed & Nikita Arnst & Sonia Sonda & Tânia Fernandes & Irene D’Arsiè & Matteo Bruzzone & Valeria Berno & Andrea Raimondi & Maria Livia , 2024. "Simultaneous detection of membrane contact dynamics and associated Ca2+ signals by reversible chemogenetic reporters," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, December.
    3. Jidong Fei & Dongdong Zhao & Caiyi Pang & Ju Li & Siwei Li & Wentao Qiao & Juan Tan & Changhao Bi & Xueli Zhang, 2025. "Mismatch prime editing gRNA increased efficiency and reduced indels," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Huiyu Cai & Zuobai Zhang & Mingkai Wang & Bozitao Zhong & Quanxiao Li & Yuxuan Zhong & Yanling Wu & Tianlei Ying & Jian Tang, 2024. "Pretrainable geometric graph neural network for antibody affinity maturation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Anete Romanauska & Edvinas Stankunas & Maya Schuldiner & Alwin Köhler, 2024. "Seipin governs phosphatidic acid homeostasis at the inner nuclear membrane," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Nathalie Béchon & Nitzan Tal & Avigail Stokar-Avihail & Alon Savidor & Meital Kupervaser & Sarah Melamed & Gil Amitai & Rotem Sorek, 2024. "Diversification of molecular pattern recognition in bacterial NLR-like proteins," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    7. Jason Saba & Katia Flores & Bailey Marshall & Michael D. Engstrom & Yikai Peng & Atharv S. Garje & Laurie E. Comstock & Robert Landick, 2024. "Bacteroides expand the functional versatility of a conserved transcription factor and transcribed DNA to program capsule diversity," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    8. Amika Singla & Daniel J. Boesch & Ho Yee Joyce Fung & Chigozie Ngoka & Avery S. Enriquez & Ran Song & Daniel A. Kramer & Yan Han & Esther Banarer & Andrew Lemoff & Puneet Juneja & Daniel D. Billadeau , 2024. "Structural basis for Retriever-SNX17 assembly and endosomal sorting," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-18, December.
    9. Sanghyeon Choi & Youngjin Lee & Shinhye Park & Song Yee Jang & Jongbin Park & Do Won Oh & Su-Man Kim & Tae-Hwan Kim & Ga Seul Lee & Changyi Cho & Byoung Sik Kim & Donghan Lee & Eun-Hee Kim & Hae-Kap C, 2024. "Dissemination of pathogenic bacteria is reinforced by a MARTX toxin effector duet," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-20, December.
    10. Yijia Cheng & Mark A. B. Kreutzberger & Jianting Han & Edward H. Egelman & Qin Cao, 2024. "Molecular architecture of the assembly of Bacillus spore coat protein GerQ revealed by cryo-EM," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.
    11. Leishu Lin & Jiayuan Dong & Shun Xu & Jinman Xiao & Cong Yu & Fengfeng Niu & Zhiyi Wei, 2024. "Autoinhibition and relief mechanisms for MICAL monooxygenases in F-actin disassembly," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    12. Yanyi Song & Shuyi Jian & Junlin Teng & Pengli Zheng & Zhe Zhang, 2025. "Structural basis of human VANGL-PRICKLE interaction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Michael Kugler & Felix J. Metzner & Gregor Witte & Karl-Peter Hopfner & Katja Lammens, 2024. "Phosphorylation-mediated conformational change regulates human SLFN11," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-15, December.
    14. Jiawei Ge & Ting Wang & Hongwei Yu & Lidan Ye, 2025. "De novo biosynthesis of nylon 12 monomer ω-aminododecanoic acid," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-17, December.
    15. Helena E. Sverak & Luke N. Yaeger & Liam J. Worrall & Condurache M. Vacariu & Amy J. Glenwright & Marija Vuckovic & Zayni-Dean Al Azawi & Ryan P. Lamers & Victoria A. Marko & Clarissa Skorupski & Arvi, 2024. "Cryo-EM characterization of the anydromuropeptide permease AmpG central to bacterial fitness and β-lactam antibiotic resistance," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-16, December.
    16. Fabian Ries & Jasmin Gorlt & Sabrina Kaiser & Vanessa Scherer & Charlotte Seydel & Sandra Nguyen & Andreas Klingl & Julia Legen & Christian Schmitz-Linneweber & Hinrik Plaggenborg & Jediael Z. Y. Ng &, 2025. "A truncated variant of the ribosome-associated trigger factor specifically contributes to plant chloroplast ribosome biogenesis," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-16, December.
    17. Rose J. Miller & Ian A. Durie & Aaron D. Gingerich & Mohamed A. Elbehairy & Abigail G. Branch & Riley G. Davis & Nada Abbadi & Melinda A. Brindley & Jarrod J. Mousa, 2024. "The structural basis of protective and nonprotective human monoclonal antibodies targeting the parainfluenza virus type 3 hemagglutinin-neuraminidase," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    18. Reilly Pidgeon & Sacha Mitchell & Michael Shamash & Layan Suleiman & Lharbi Dridi & Corinne F. Maurice & Bastien Castagner, 2025. "Diet-derived urolithin A is produced by a dehydroxylase encoded by human gut Enterocloster species," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Luc Provencher & Wilson Nartey & Peter M. Brownlee & Austin W. Atkins & Jean-Philippe Gagné & Lou Baudrier & Nicholas S. Y. Ting & Cortt G. Piett & Shujuan Fang & Dustin D. Pearson & Shaun Moore & Pie, 2025. "CHD6 has poly(ADP-ribose)- and DNA-binding domains and regulates PARP1/2-trapping inhibitor sensitivity via abasic site repair," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-24, December.
    20. Marius Klein & Klemens Wild & Irmgard Sinning, 2024. "Multi-protein assemblies orchestrate co-translational enzymatic processing on the human ribosome," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33539. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.