But consumers have much to look forward to as companies and university scientists absorb the overwhelming amount of new information supplied by the Human Genome Project, industry analysts said. While it's not likely that cancer will be cured tomorrow or that people will be re-growing broken limbs by this time next year, fundamental changes in the way medicine is delivered are on their way. Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., and other genomics companies are testing gene sequences to find out how their mechanics truly affect human health. Already, companies are finding ways to tailor drugs to the people who will benefit most. McCamant pointed to cancer as a disease area where consumers may experience some dramatic new hope relatively soon.
Cancer treatments account for about one-third of the drugs in human studies.
Companies focus on these areas first because they can show the usefulness of a drug in the shortest amount of time. In the meantime, they can begin trials to study which treatments can truly extend life or even cure the more common cancers. Herceptin, for example, was approved first for women who were extremely sick and had already failed other treatments. But new research indicates that it might actually work best when used early on and in combination with chemotherapy. Genentech is also studying the effects of combining another chemotherapeutic agent with Herceptin in order to attack the cancer swiftly and effectively.