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July 2, 2012 - Frederieke van der Baan earns doctorate as part of Escher Project

On 28 June 2012, Frederieke van der Baan earned her doctoral degree in Utrecht with a thesis entitled ‘Personalized Medicine Pharmacogenetic Testing in Drug Development and Clinical Practice’. This thesis examined how clinical trials can best be designed when there is a genetic variant that ensures that patients react differently to a medicinal product depending on whether or not they have this variant.

Medicinal product dependent on genetic passport

In her research, Van der Baan focused on randomised trials and studied which set-up is most suitable and efficient for various research questions and based on various baselines. She also demonstrated that genetics can contribute toward predicting whether a patient with high cholesterol will benefit from a statin. It was also found that the request for care (expressed in length of hospitalisation and adverse events, among other things) in psychiatric patients taking antidepressants or antipsychotics depends on certain genetic variations. However, more research is necessary before specific treatment recommendations can be made for patients with a rare genetic profile.

The Escher Project

The Escher Project is a public-private consortium that is part of TI Pharma. Its aim is to study the regulatory system with respect to the market authorisation and reimbursement of medicinal products as well as to identify problem areas and find solutions for these in order to stimulate medicinal product innovation and give patients access to safe and effective medicinal products. The Medicines Evaluation Board (MEB) has an important role in the project, based on its knowledge of and experience with the regulatory process.

More information

• TI Pharma Escher project

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