On The Threshold Of Genetic Medicine

The drive to identify the function of genes and the screening of the population for corresponding genetic profiles will necessitate the creation of a new paradigm for knowledge management, said George Poste, chairman of research and development at SmithKline Beecham, speaking at a Biotechnology in Healthcare meeting in London earlier this month (Marketletters passim).

The ability to correlate genes with disease, resulting from the massive gene sequencing programs ongoing at the moment, is beginning to usher in the era of true genetic medicine, he noted. As an example, Dr Poste said that SmithKline Beecham has possibly the largest gene database possessed by any institution and has so far identified 85,000 genes. However, he said, the function of the vast majority of these genes is still not understood. Once the functions are identified, then the process of product development should be much easier.

The new discipline, which currently has the name bioinformatics, will be the next competitive arena for pharmaceutical companies, he said, although one must be careful not to confuse information overkill with knowledge capture. The important point to recognize here, is that the new landscape will be too large for one company to manage and, he said, will mean the creation of some sort of database federation which will include not only pharmaceutical companies but also managed care providers and government organizations. The main problem arising from a cooperative network is privacy and confidentiality of patients' data.