Genomic medicines have gone through periods of hype and disillusionment since their conceptualization. For example, the approval of the pioneering gene therapy alipogene tiparvovec (Glybera) a decade ago fuelled expectations of a subsequent wave of other virally delivered gene therapies. However, these expectations have not yet been realized, and with ~30 setbacks for genomic medicine candidates in the past 3 years (Supplementary Table 1), of which more than 50% were due to safety concerns, the valuation of public genomic medicine companies has fallen significantly (Supplementary Fig. 1). So, key questions for pharma companies and investors include how long will it take genomic medicines to realize their potential and how large will the associated markets be?
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Competing Interests
J.W. and B.C. are employees of The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a management consultancy that works with the world's leading biopharmaceutical companies. W.X. was an employee of BCG at the time the article was written. The research for this specific article was funded by BCG's healthcare practice and represents the views of BCG and does not represent the views of Millennium.