Firms give U.S. millions for genetic research

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A major drug manufacturer and a leading biotechnology company are giving the government millions of dollars in a new push to uncover genetic causes of diseases.

The National Institutes of Health announced the partnership Wednesday with Pfizer Inc. and Affymetrix Inc., saying the project's discoveries won't become the property of the two companies but will be available to all scientists.

 

Scientists now have mapped all the human genes, as well as patterns of small DNA differences that may help forecast people's risk of disease. Connecting those reams of data to actual disease risks is a hefty, time-consuming task; lots of studies are under way, by NIH, private companies and other researchers.

 

The new project, called the Genetic Association Information Network, aims to speed the NIH's part of that hunt with an influx of private cash and access to some high-tech industry laboratories.

NIH already has more than 100 research studies under way in which patients, or samples of their tissue, are available for genetic analysis. Scanning DNA from groups of patients for tiny differences -- known as SNPs, or single-nucleotide polymorphisms -- that may be linked to their diseases can cost about $3 million per study.

 

Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, is donating $5 million to help start that project, plus $15 million in laboratory studies to do that analysis for five common diseases. Biotechnology company Affymetrix Inc., a leading maker of gene-analysis equipment, is donating the resources for similar DNA analysis for two additional diseases.

But DNA alone doesn't determine if people get some of the nation's most common illnesses, such as heart disease or asthma. Genes may put people at risk but something environmental -- behavior, diet, pollution, infections -- can push them over the edge.

 

Separately, NIH is seeking a $40 million budget increase from Congress to spur research on that gene-environment interaction. In addition to NIH's own gene analysis of patients, it plans to develop devices to help measure patients' exposure to such exposures, everything from precise measurements of physical activity to exposure to potential toxins.