UK launches $247mn database to treat life-threatening diseases

Bloomberg

The UK is launching a 200 million-pound ($247 million) DNA database to boost the prevention and treatment of life-threatening diseases from cancer to Alzheimer’s.
Backed by 100 million pounds from pharma giants GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca Plc and Amgen Inc, the initiative will analyse and sequence the genetic codes of 500,000 volunteers at the UK Biobank.
“This project will help unlock new treatments and grow our understanding of how genetics affects our risk of disease,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in a statement Tuesday. “In an aging society with an increasing burden of chronic diseases, it is vital that we diagnose earlier, personalise treatment and where possible prevent diseases from occurring altogether.”
Experimental drugs with genetic underpinnings are twice as likely as others to become novel medicines, John Lepore, senior vice president of research at GSK, said in a separate statement. In 2017, the British drugmaker said it would set aside 40 million pounds partly for the sequencing project and committed to analyzing data from the first 50,000 participants.
Carried in cells, the DNA code determines how tissues, organs and organisms develop.
UK Biobank recruited people from 2006 to 2010 to provide blood, saliva and urine samples, as well as detailed information about themselves that will be matched to their DNA sequences. Data will be crunched by the Wellcome Sanger Institute, with the results intended to help the UK’s National Health Service improve patient care, the government said.
The first project to sequence a single human genome was completed in 2003 for more than
$2 billion after about 13 years of work. Since then, the cost of decoding a single genome has fallen to less than $1,000 and can be done in an hour.
The UK initiative will rely on technology from Illumina Inc, the San Diego-based maker of DNA sequencing machines.
The program was announced along with plans to enable international students to work in the UK for two years after graduation. The government said that will spur breakthroughs in science, technology and research.