Opportunity analysis project report by Team Neuropeptide, Stanford VentureLab class 2012. Our team is exploring business opportunities in the area of overlap of the fields of neurocomputation, genomics, and medicine. We are looking for successful ways to use neuromorphic algorithms for mining genomic databases and create opportunities for modern agile business models in more accessible and personalized healthcare.

1. Personalized Medicine
The technologies are here
Are you ready to invest and help
patients?
Opportunity Analysis Project for the Stanford Technology Ventures Course 2012
Submitted by Team Neuropeptide

2. What is personalized medicine?
Personalized medicine is generally understood as the use of molecular
analysis to achieve optimal medical outcomes in the management of
patient’s disease or disease predisposition
(Based on the definition from the Personalized Medicine Coalition)
Our primary business objectives:
i) Development of a comprehensive machine learning framework
to identify molecular signatures in patients with the highest unmet
medical needs i.e. oncology/cancer
ii) Development of personalized medical treatments that might
include targeted personalized drugs tailored to individual genetics

3. Patients with unmet medical needs want more
effective treatments with fewer side effects
● Over 50% of prescribed
drugs are not efficacious.
The option for healthcare
providers and patients was
an expensive and inefficient
trial and error approach
based on arcane
technologies. Our society
can not afford the status
quo anymore
● Patients as well as healthy
people desire personalized
medical care
Personalized Medicine Attitude Survey Results, VL Neuropeptide Team, 2012

4. Changes are coming...
• The paradigm shift in health care is here to stay and
visionary informatics and biotech entrepreneurs have been
positioning themselves to gain early entry advantage in
this new era
• FDA getting proactive to prevent adverse drug effects
• FDA getting proactive at supporting personalized
medicine technologies and research initiatives
Biomarkers, SNPs, NGS, Microarrays, Genomics, Proteomics, Imaging,
Diagnostics and Targeted Personalized Therapeutics

5. A Mandate: The right drug to the right
patient at the right time (Leroy Hood)
• Multiple approaches to develop the best treatment for the individual
patient
• Capitalize on current advances in computational biology to speed up
the discovery of personalized biologics
• Started with diagnostics moving fast into personalized therapeutics
Some Venture Capital firms shifted their investments overseas where
regulatory approvals come quicker;
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is taking steps to address
some of the industry's concerns; the agency plans to streamline
regulations and speed up the approval process for some drugs
Bloomberg.com, Oct 6, 2011

6. How should medicine be reformed?
● The progress of clinical trials should be made readily available
● Patient privacy should be observed if requested by the patient, but
depersonalized genomic and clinical data should be freely shared
and exchanged
● The power of outside interests (big pharma, insurance, etc.) should
be explicitly curtailed. An industry-wide black list for cases of
collusion, probable bias, and misleading results should be kept with
free access
● The field should embrace computation and big data to accelerate
research and create a framework for personalized medicine
● Better integration of computers in clinical practice and better
utilization of data produced
● Better MR scanners and better BCIs

7. What are the biggest roadblocks in
medicine today?
● Perceived unbalanced use of personal information by healthcare and
insurance entities may be generating mistrust and a feeling of helplessness
in people
● Low quality of body of research caused by an enormous amount of biased
and unverified experimental findings usually due to outside interests or
ulterior motives
● Slow introduction of computational power into the medical field in general
● The idea that complex psychological phenomena can be explained by quite
simple biological factors (alone)
● Hierarchical and traditional structure
● Lack of emancipated patient participation

8. What are the advantages of personalization?
What are the advantages of personalization?
Arcane Reactive Medical Care Efficient Medical Care
Not just personalized drug selection but
personalized drug development!
Costly and inefficient trial and Improved Quality Care
error approach
Adapted fromfrom Personalized Medicine Coalition report, www.PersonalizedMedicineCoalition.org
Adapted public public Personalized Medicine Coalition report

9. The goal of the Personalized
Medicine Coalition
Figure taken from the PMC website www.PersonalizedMedicineCoalition.org

11. Genotype Analysis Attitude
Data from our survey
How likely are you to get your genotype
confidentially analyzed for you (possible for $300)?
Personalized Medicine Attitude Survey
Results, VL Neuropeptide Team, 2012

12. Personalized drug consumer attitude
data from our survey
How likely are you to get your
whole genome sequenced and n=55
analyzed for the development of
your own personalized
experimental drug(s)?
Conclusion:
Our sample size is not large enough
(n=55) to draw a statistically relevant
conclusion with respect to the degree of
willingness to have own genome
sequenced and analyzed for
development of own drugs.
However, it is apparent from the
responses that people that are not likely
to do it are a minority with respect to
those that could eventually do it. We
predict that with proper education on the
subject, ~75% of the people will be very
likely to do it.
Personalized Medicine Attitude Survey Results, VL Neuropeptide Team, 2012

13. Personalized health care consumer
attitude data from our survey
When do you think it will be
possible to provide personalized
health care? n=55
Conclusion:
From a sample size n=55, we
observe an overall optimistic
public attitude toward the ability
to realize and implement full
personalized health care in the
coming years.
We hypothesize that with better
education about the subject, the
general perception of the public
will tend to be skewed toward
shorter development and
implementation times
Personalized Medicine Attitude Survey Results, VL Neuropeptide Team, 2012

14. Market Projections in Personalized
Medicine
● Projected to grow
11.56% annually
● Estimated
U$ 232MM
● Expected to
double by 2015 to
over 450MM
● Mostly from
Genomics and
Proteomics

15. Bay area proactive
http://2013sv.pmwcintl.com/