GSK and Genomics plc will collaborate on a new precision medicine initiative that assesses how genetic data can be used in clinical trial design, Genomics announced April 30.
The project will look at ways Genomics’ technology for utilizing polygenic risk scores (PRS)—a way to assess how likely a person is to develop a disease or respond to a drug based on their genes—can be used to understand disease risk and inform patient selection for clinical trials. GSK and Genomics will see whether they can use the tools to reduce the number of trial participants, shorten the duration of a study and improve trial outcomes.
“PRS-based approaches have the potential to support clinical trial design,” Sir Peter Donnelly, Genomics founder and CEO, said in a release about the collaboration. “Using PRS to get the right people into studies could have a potential positive impact, including the reduction of trial size and timescale, leading to efficiencies in drug development.”
Though the use of PRS in the clinic isn’t yet routine, there is some evidence that they may be useful, while other research refutes the theory. A 2022 analysis by researchers from Harvard and the Broad Institute, including Verve Therapeutics Vice President of Genomic Medicine Amit Khera, M.D., made the case for testing PRS in clinical trials as a way to lower costs.