Print“We expect that many of our patients will directly benefit from their participation in this research because of Geisinger's ability to validate and return clinically actionable results to them, says David Ledbetter, the health system's CSO and EVP.”
Geisinger Health System, one of the largest integrated health systems in the United States, is partnering with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals to launch a large-scale study of the genetic determinants of human disease.
The partners says they’ll build a high-throughput platform for discovering and validating genetic factors that cause or influence a range of diseases where there are major unmet medical needs, producing the largest analysis and sequencing of genetic material and comparison to long-term health outcomes in the United States to date.
Geisinger, which serves nearly 3 million people in northeastern and central Pennsylvania, plans to collect samples from more than 100,000 patient volunteers in the project's first five years. As it does so, Regeneron's wholly-owned subsidiary, Regeneron Genetics Center, will perform sequencing and genotyping to generate de-identified genomic data.
"We expect that many of our patients will directly benefit from their participation in this research because of Geisinger's ability to validate and return clinically actionable results to them," says David Ledbetter, the health system's CSO and executive vice president. "This collaboration has the potential to provide Geisinger with tools to transform our ability to foresee disease before the onset of symptoms, diagnose chronic and potentially fatal conditions before it's too late to intervene, and determine how best to optimize the health and well-being for each of our patients."
For Regeneron, the project represents a first step in the company’s planned expansion in the use of human genetics for defining disease targets and improving the drug development process. Geisinger, meanwhile, says the project will further its mission to improve population health and individualized care through clinical innovation and cutting edge research.
Financial details of the collaboration were not released, but Geisinger president and CEO Glenn Steele told Modern Healthcare that Geisinger would "be able to share in Regeneron's success" if any drugs arising from the collaboration meet with commercial success.
The partners say that the project will benefit from Geisinger's advanced sample collection and storage capabilities and extensive electronic medical records system. They will also leverage Regeneron's expertise and infrastructure to support the sequencing and genotyping work. The company intends to use its translational research and functional biology capabilities, including its next-generation DNA sequencing technology, to validate any observed human genetic associations.
The scale of Regeneron and Geisinger's collaboration, though remarkable, is not without precedent. In October 2013, the U.K. Department of Health launched Genomics England, a new entity to deliver on that government’s promise to sequence 100,000 whole genomes by 2017. China’s sequencing powerhouse, BGI, has set its sights on sequencing one million human genomes. No matter which undertaking reaches its goal first, the long-term value of data created by such projects could be immense, revealing here-to-for hidden genetic basis of various human diseases and hints about promising new drug targets to prime drugmakers pipelines for years to come.
January 18, 2014
http://www.burrillreport.com/article-regeneron_and_geisinger_to_sequence_100k_genomes.html
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