diagnosis within personalized medi- cine. Thereby we can conclude that personalized medicine can be value for money and represents a key op- portunity for improving efficiency in healthcare provision and drug devel- opment. However, the impact of ex- isting evidence on reimbursement has shown to be very small. FDA approved tests have little clinical evidence and vice versa, evidence-based tests have not resulted in approval [2]. As it ap- pears, professional society guidelines have a far stronger influence on re- imbursement than evidence, because they take into account current practice patterns [2]; only judgement of the evidence's strength is included [2]. Conclusion Amongst other reasons, the lack of strong clinical evidence in form of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) can be responsible for low levels of reim- bursement of personalized medicine [2]. In this sense, the industry can only be encouraged to promote clinical trials of personalized medicine tech- nologies in order to ensure its ac- knowledgment by reimbursement au- thorities. On the other hand, current reimbursement systems will be challenged in the future due to the increase of technologies requiring re- imbursement assessment. Reimburse- ment processes might need to become not only more flexible but also act more rapidly. Despite of the complexity of per- sonalized medicine, its lack of evidence and its demand of health system adaption, personalized medicine rep- resents a most interesting pharma- ceutical development also due to its great potential of creating multiple “win-win-situations”, for patients, for providers, for the industry, and last but not least, for payers. Not only has personalized medicine shown im- portant benefits, it has demonstrated substantial value which merits further pursuit. | Literature [1] Hamburg, M.A. and Collins F.S., The Path to Personalized Medicine, Perspective, New England Journal of Medicine, July 2010 [2] Meckley L.M., Neumann P.J, Personaliized Med- icine: Factors influencing reimbursement, Health Policy, 2010 [3] Jackson, D.B. and Sood, A., Personalized Cancer Medicine – Advances and Socio-economic Challenges, Nature, Volume 8, December 2011 [4] Tahan, V. et al, Is HCV Genotyping Cost-Effective Even When the Prevalences of Genotypes 2 and 3 Are Low?, Hepato-Gastroenterology 5, 2009 [5] Carlson J.J., The Potential Clinical and Economic Outcomes of Pharmacogenomic Approaches to EGFR-Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitor Therapy in Non– Small-Cell Lung Cancer, Value in Health, Volume 12, 2009 [6] Blank P. et al, KRAS and BRAF mutation analysis in metastatic colorectal cancer: a cost-effectiveness analysis from a Swiss perspective, Clinical Cancer Research, 2011 [7] Blank, P. et al, Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor 2 Expression in Early Breast Cancer Patients: A Swiss Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of Different Predictive Assay Strategies, Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 2010 AUTHORS Thomas D. Szucs, MD, certified specialist for pharmaceutical medicine (PM) and public health, expert in medical economics and pharmacoeconomics, is Professor in PM and Director of the Institute of Phar- maceutical Medicine (ECPM) at the Uni- versity of Basel, and Chairman of the Helsana Group, the largest Swiss healthcare insurer. Previously he held several senior management positions in universities, companies and holdings in Switzerland and Italy. He is also member of the editorial board of several scientific journals and has published more than 200 articles, book chapters and monographies. He is currently setting up a clinical service for personalised medicine. Contact thomas.szucs@unibas.ch Alice Fiorentzis is a research associate at Helsana AG. She has obtained her Master degree in Political Science from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and the Freie University of Berlin, Ger- many. Currently she is finalizing her Advanced Master degree in Public Health at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Prior, Alice Fiorentzis worked as a Senior Research Executive at the LINK Institute in Zurich focussing on healthcare. Patricia R. Blank is Senior Research Scientist at the Institute of Pharma- ceutical Medicine (ECPM) at the Uni- versity of Basel, Switzerland, and at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine of the University of Zurich, Switzerland. She holds a PhD in Biology (University of Zurich) and a CAS (Cer- tificate of Advanced Studies) in Phar- maceutical Medicine (University of Basel). Patricia R. Blank has extensive experience in health economic mod- elling and outcome research especially in the field of influenza vaccination and personalized medicine in oncology. She published extensively in a number of peer-reviewed journals and books. Februar | Heft 1 | Jahrgang 16 | pharmazeutische medizin 2014 | 23