Eli Lilly: Medical breakthroughs will ease impact of aging

Eli Lilly has issued a prediction that recent breakthroughs in biomedicine are drastically altering the industry and have the potential to fundamentally ease the impact of aging.

Sidney Taurel, chairman and chief executive officer of the firm, told the Chief Executives Club of Boston that these advances will cause a shift in the industry from one that treats symptoms to one that predicts and prevents disease.

The company reported that it had gleaned previously unknown information regarding the progression of diseases and the response from the human immune system from novel technologies including RNA interference, microarrays, biomarkers and bioinformatics.

Mr Taurel described the industry as being in the formative stages of considerable progress in drug discovery.

“With all the new ideas and new tools emerging from the biomedical revolution, we see the potential to develop and deliver highly customised treatments, optimised for specific patient populations,” he said.

He added that these changes will result in the concept of old age taking on a “new meaning” in the future.

Last October, Lilly announced that it had completed the first phase of its plans to expand its biotechnology complex in Indianapolis as part of its efforts to enhance its biotechnology research and development abilities.