In the beginning of March 2017, a Medical Genetics Conference of the National Technology Initiative (NTI) was held at the Medical Genetics Research Center of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations. The participants discussed measures to support Russian companies developing such areas as gene therapy, genetic diagnostics, early detection and prevention of hereditary diseases, bioinformatics and pharmacogenetics.
NTI is a long-term comprehensive program aimed at supporting Russian companies in new high-tech global markets that are to emerge in 15 to 20 years. The content of the list of measures for Russia to achieve leadership in new markets is determined by high-tech businesses. A working group which includes representatives of business, scientific and educational communities, executive authorities and other interested participants has been created for each market segment. The Medical Genetics segment is part of the HealhNet market.
At the March conference, the project manager of the NTI Project Office of RVC JSC, Sergey Abayev, announced that the HealthNet Roadmap was approved on December 20, 2016 by the Decision of the Presidium of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Economy Modernization and Innovative Development of Russia.
Artur Isaev, head of the Medical Genetics section, director of the Human Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) biotech company, founder of the Genetico Center for Genetics and Reproductive Medicine, described the main focuses of the segment, as well as the evaluation mechanism and selection criteria for NTI projects.
The Medical Genetics segment will implement projects for the development of gene therapy drugs and gene therapy methods aimed at treating hereditary, oncological, cardiovascular and infectious diseases. Projects to create new molecular genetic diagnostic technologies for early detection, prevention and treatment of hereditary diseases. Projects to create IT platforms for bioinformation analysis of genomic and biomarker data, genomic data centers.
Sergey Ivanovich Kutsev, director of Federal State Budgetary Research Institution Medical Genetics Research Center of the Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations, chief medical genetics expert of the Russian Ministry of Health, noted that “most hereditary diseases are incurable today. Therefore, the development and clinical trials of drugs and technologies for the treatment of orphan diseases are of particular importance.”
During the implementation of the roadmap, Russian personalized drugs and diagnostic services will be created. The total rate of hereditary diseases by ethnic and geographical groups of the Russian population will be established, a database of the gene pool structure and genomic variations in the population will be created. Treatment of severe, socially significant and hereditary diseases will become more effective and affordable, treatment side effects will be reduced significantly, and the export of gene therapy drugs and substances will be organized. More jobs for highly qualified personnel will be created.
According to expert calculations by the Institute of Health Economics of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, the implementation of the Medical Genetics roadmap will have the following effects: economic effect: RUB 168 billion; commercial effect: RUB 143 billion; investments: RUB 200 billion.
Other effects should also be noted:
Reducing the cost of treating rare diseases due to their early detection;
Optimizing medical genetic counseling costs due to the efforts of regional consultations according to the identified genetic burden level in the population of different regions;
Increasing the IVF efficiency up to 60% (i.e. 60% of cycles will result in the birth of a healthy child) due to preimplantation testing for chromosomal abnormalities);
Increasing the number of children born without abnormalities and monogenic diseases;
Creating drugs to increase the effectiveness of treatment of hereditary diseases.