Enabling personalized medicine in Europe by the European Commission's funding activities

Personalized medicine (PM) is an emerging approach to prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care. It helps to address the challenge of the aging of the population, an increase in chronic disease and increasing healthcare costs. The EU is developing policies to move toward PM. This is underpinned by a sustained and significant investment starting in 2010. So far, a total of €3.2 billion has been invested in PM research across the medical innovation cycle ‘from bench to bedside’. This investment has come from the research framework programs FP7 and Horizon 2020. About a third of the total investment has been made in the context of the Innovative Medicines Initiative, the largest public–private partnership in life sciences globally.