Francisco Ramirez-Valle, senior vice president, head of Immunology and Cardiovascular Thematic Research Center
We are looking to make further progress in the field with innovative therapies that work directly on the heart. Unlike other approaches that indirectly affect heart function, our approach addresses the problem at the source: the heart muscle itself. For example, therapies that target the sarcomere (the fundamental building blocks of the heart muscle), may help treat the underlying cause of conditions involving problems with how the heart contracts and relaxes.
Q: How is precision medicine being applied to advance these new CVD therapies?
Francisco: Our scientists apply a precision medicine approach to research in CVD, drawing on 70 years of insights and progress from work across therapeutic areas and from deep knowledge of genetics and causal human biology. Causal human biology, in particular, applies human data to better understand how modulating a target might impact human physiology. This precision approach enables us to identify specific targets for specific patient segments, apply the appropriate therapeutic modality, and develop new medicines.
Traditionally, CVD treatments have been nonspecific, treating all patients similarly. Precision medicine is allowing us to better understand these differences, especially as genetic data reveal diverse types of cardiomyopathies — conditions that affect the muscle of the heart.
We are working to tailor CVD treatments to patient subgroups based on unique genetic traits. This precise approach is rooted in causal human biology, and we are leveraging insights from our work in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) — where we developed a novel, first-in-class medicine that works directly on the heart —to put forward new ways of treating certain types of patients with heart failure. These efforts aim to both help improve clinical outcomes, such as a reduction in hospitalizations as example, and also improve quality of life.
