8.8 C
New York
Thursday, March 28, 2024

These Superhumans Are Real and Their DNA Could Be Worth Billions

The decreasing cost of gene sequencing (as low as $1,000 a patient today) is allowing companies to to sequence many people's DNA, create large data bases, and find relationships between genes and symptoms. The result: potentially new and improved drugs to treat genetic and other conditions such as high cholesterol and chronic pain. 

These Superhumans Are Real and Their DNA Could Be Worth Billions

Drug companies are exploiting rare mutations that make one person nearly immune to pain, another to broken bones

By 

Excerpt:

Dreyer and Pete are “a gift from nature,” says Andreas Grauer, global development lead for the osteoporosis drug Amgen is creating. “It is our obligation to turn it into something useful.”

What’s good for patients is also good for business. The painkiller market alone is worth $18 billion a year. The industry is pressing ahead with research into genetic irregularities. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a cholesterol-lowering treatment on July 24 from Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals based on the rare gene mutation of an aerobics instructor with astoundingly low cholesterol levels. Amgen has a similar cholesterol drug, based on the same discovery, and expects U.S. approval in August. The drugs can lower cholesterol when statins alone don’t work. They are expected to cost up to $12,000 per patient per year and bring in more than $1 billion annually.

Drugmakers are also investing in acquisitions and partnerships to get their hands on genetic information that could lead to more drugs. Amgen bought an Icelandic biotechnology company, DeCode Genetics, for $415 million in 2012, to acquire its massive database on more than half of Iceland’s adult population. Genentech is collaborating with Silicon Valley startup 23andMe, which has sold its $99 DNA spit kits to 1 million consumers who want to find out more about their health and family history—more than 80 percent have agreed to have their data used for research. The Genentech partnership will study the genetic underpinnings of Parkinson’s disease. And Regeneron has signed a deal with Pennsylvania’s Geisinger Health System to sequence the genes of more than 100,000 volunteers.

[…]

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Stay Connected

157,452FansLike
396,312FollowersFollow
2,280SubscribersSubscribe

Latest Articles

0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x