Precision medicine to change the landscape of cardiovascular drug development

Introduction: Precision cardiovascular medicine, while still in development, holds great promise for the development of more and better therapeutic interventions. The field of cardiovascular disease (CVD) research is starting to embrace novel strategies supported by the abundance of genetic discoveries made in the last decade. Precision medicine has the potential to revitalize the last two decades of lethargy in CVD drug development, which has been declining since the 1990s while CVD remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Areas covered: The authors present recent CVD precision medicine discoveries and discuss the potential for a fundamental shift in the cardiovascular drug development programs. Expert commentary: The dal-GenE trial, with dalcetrapib and its companion diagnostic, has the potential to set the stage for a new era of precision drug development in CVD. Pharmacogenomics could help reduce late-stage failures if implemented early in drug development programs. Stratification of patients can lead to more efficient outcomes trials providing more robust evidence to regulatory agencies.