UK Leading Exciting Future in Genomics and Precision Medicine
The UK has a proud record in leading the world in genomics and precision medicine, and it has a bright future ahead in these exciting areas, which will be at the forefront of disease detection, prevention and cure for years to come.
The UK has the right environment, particularly with collaboration at its core between academia, industry and the NHS. These were the views of leading figures in genomics and precision medicine at a recent Public Policy Projects event chaired by Angela McFarlane of IQVIA: Unleashing the Potential of Global Britain for Life Sciences Genomics and Precision Medicine.
Angela set the scene, describing how the UK had led the way with the 100,000 Genomes Project, and we were now well on the way to sequencing a further five million genomes by 2024 including 500,000 whole genomes through the NHS Genomic Medicine Service and 500,000 whole genomes through UK Biobank. She explained how the UK had the largest cell and gene therapy cluster in Europe, and had led the way with personalised medicines such as Kymriah.
A Beacon to the World
Dr Joanne Hackett, Head of Genomic and Precision Medicine at IQVIA and formerly Chief Commercial Officer of Genomics England, explained how the UK was leading the way in a global drive. Getting international data was key, so it was excellent to see the various international projects around the world that were sequencing different genomes from different patient populations. The world had to work together to make most use of this data. The UK had taken the lead throughout, and crucially what the UK was also now leading on was showing the importance of linking clinical and genomic data. She explained that to make this work, patient privacy and buy-in had to be ensured. The UK is the first country to have a Genomic Medicine Service - linking trials to research to industry. We will be leaps and bounds ahead if we share and have a federated access, and the UK can be a beacon to the world - including to show challenges and opportunities.
How Has UK Biobank Helped Advance Research?
Professor Naomi Allen, Chief Scientist at UK Biobank, then shared the phenomenal experience and opportunity of Biobank and its role in enabling genomic research and medicine. Over the last 15 years, it has been following 500,000 people to understand why disease affects some and not others, based on taking information about them and their lifestyles to provide a deeper understanding of how individuals experience diseases. This database is the largest and richest of its kind is anonymised and made widely accessible to researchers around the world, who use it to make new scientific discoveries about common and life-threatening diseases, such as cancer, heart disease and stroke. Biobank was now moving to the next level by performing whole exome sequencing and whole genome sequencing for all 500,000 participants, and has only been achieved because of a collaborative consortium of academia, charity and industry. There are challenges in assessing such huge data, but with a collaboration of multi-disciplinary research, various scientists can work together to solve the problem.
The Crucial Role of the NHS
Professor Dame Sue Hill, the Senior Responsible Officer for Genomics at NHS England, spoke about the way in which the NHS is playing such a unique role in linking patient care with research, with a collaboration with Genomics England that creates a virtuous circle. The NHS had played a part in the 100,000 Genomes Project and was a big part of the reason why the UK will be so important for genomic research and collaboration in years to come including through its policy for the next 10 years of Genome UK. Genome UK is an ambitious plan around three pillars:
- diagnosis and personalised medicine
- prevention
- research.
The NHS funding 500,000 whole genome sequencing as part of routine diagnosis makes this a world first. Sue said that maximum benefit can be achieved, only when joining together academia, industry, NHS, patients and the international level, and the NHS will be a really great partner in genomics research and use.
How Can Industry Drive Innovation Through Collaboration?
Then Lynelle Hoch General Manager for UK and Ireland at Brisol Myers Squibb, gave a very positive view from industry and how she was extolling the virtues of the UK in this area at global level within BMS, and how they bought into this. Lynelle said that an important question was: how can industry drive innovation through collaboration? She said that BMS alone has 200 partnerships around the UK including with many in academia and other bodies such as the Francis Crick Institute. Collaboration has been key as none of this can be solved alone. The UK provided a great environment to do this. 'Global Britain' meant not just the world looking in at Britain; but the globe actually exists in Britain - the UK has more ethnic diversity than anywhere in the world, so the UK is the perfect place to capture data. She concluded by saying that the UK was very ambitious in the field of genomics, and how can we take this out there and lead for the rest of the world?
The Future of Life Sciences
At the 2020 PING Conference run by VWV on Britain's Great Life Sciences Future: Genomics, Personalised Medicine and AI, we heard an array of excellent speakers from Genomics England, Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, Deloitte, Congenica, Benevolent AI and others. We were treated to some really exciting news about the UK's lead in these exciting and innovative areas, which are going to shape the future of life sciences and treatments of patients in novel ways. It is great to hear this continuing from the recent PPP event.
In the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK's industry, academia and NHS has been at the forefront of life-changing medicines and vaccine development at pace and scale, and there are real opportunities to continue to take a lead in this area, for the good of patients and the pharma and life sciences industry. The MHRA has also played a leading role in an innovative approach. In addition, collaboration has been shown to be key. We will be exploring these areas further at the 2021 PING Conference, which we are holding this year in association with IQVIA.