News & Views item

News & Views item - June 2013

Impact and US Government Investment in Genomics. (June 13, 2013)

The results of a study commissioned from Battelle by United for Medical Research is summarised below. The question arises as to what sort of an impact score the project would have obtained were it assessed when proposed?

We'd like to have a measure [of research impact] in place as soon as possible so long at it is robust and verifiable.

Vicki Thomson, executive director of the Australian Technology Network of universities.

As well as usefully predictive?

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This report is an update to the highly-cited Battelle 2011 report tracking the growth of the genomics industry and its links to the federally funded Human Genome Project (HGP). This 2013 update demonstrates that the Human Genome Project and related research continue to yield significant U.S. economic growth.

KEY FINDINGS

The HGP and related federal research are linked to $965 billion in economic activity, more than 53,000 direct genomics-related jobs and $293 billion in personal income.
The 24-year U.S. investment in genomics amounts to $2 per year for each U.S. resident, triggering nearly $1 trillion in economic output as well as transformational changes in medicine.

BENEFITS OF FEDERAL INVESTMENT IN GENOMICS

The cost of sequencing a human genome has plummeted from $1 billion at the start of the HGP to $3-5,000 today
The number of diseases with an identified genomic cause has risen from 61 in 1990 to nearly 5,000 today.
More than 100 drugs currently on the market have a pharmacogenomics label
Advanced melanoma, a disease that languished for decades without new treatments, has had four therapies approved by the FDA in the last two years, thanks to new genomics insights.
Genomics applications and technologies extend well beyond human health, into diverse areas that include agriculture, industrial biotechnologies, renewable energy development, forensic science and homeland security and environmental science.

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