Support biomedicine!
Personalized medicine will help in the treatment of the most severe diseases
Anna Govorova, Infox.ru
Biomedical technologies are capable of revolutionizing the solution of the most acute problems of modern healthcare, such as, for example, high mortality from cancer and cardiovascular diseases or the growth of antibiotic resistance.
One of the directions of biomedicine – personalized medicine – is the most promising direction in the treatment of oncological diseases, which annually claim more than 7 million lives.
The possibilities of biomedicine, the problems and prospects of its development in Russia, the methods of personalized medicine that have already been successfully used, were discussed by the participants of the round table "Support for biomedicine today – a breakthrough in healthcare tomorrow". The round table was held in Moscow and was organized by the international biopharmaceutical company AstraZeneca with the support of the All-Russian Science Festival and the Skolkovo Open University.
As noted by the head of the Department of Tumor Growth Biology of the N.N. Petrov Research Institute of Oncology, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Evgeny Imyanitov, the main tasks of modern oncology, which are solved on the basis of personalized medicine approaches, can be divided into two groups. The first is the development of approaches to the diagnosis of hereditary cancers. The second is the development of molecular genetic tests that allow selecting individual treatment.
And biomedical science has already achieved a lot in this direction.
Evgeny Imyanitov called the discovery of mutations in the EGFR gene one of the main events in clinical oncology of the last decade.
"Determining EGFR gene mutations is an extraordinary test. This mutation occurs in 6-7% of Russians suffering from lung cancer. At the same time, tumors of patients with this mutation demonstrate special sensitivity to tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Therefore, the presence of such a mutation practically guarantees a positive therapeutic effect with a certain therapy. In patients with an intact gene, the probability of a response to treatment does not exceed 5-10%," emphasizes Evgeny Imyanitov.
Determination of EGFR gene mutations in patients with non-small cell lung cancer is currently a mandatory diagnostic procedure, clinically and economically justified.
Deputy Director, Head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology of the Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Sergey Tyulyandin noted that a project of the Society of Oncologists-Chemotherapists is successfully working in Russia within the framework of the program "Improving the system of molecular genetic diagnostics of oncological diseases".
The project provides an opportunity for any Russian oncologist to send their patients' material to one of the 9 laboratories that participate in the program for free to study molecular genetic changes in the tumor. Such studies make it possible to determine the tactics of drug therapy individually for each patient, which means to improve the quality of treatment and get closer to international trends in clinical practice.
"During the 18 months of this project, samples of more than 8 thousand patients were analyzed. Currently, the project is focused on EGFR and ALK studies for lung cancer patients and KRAS for colorectal cancer patients," said Sergey Tyulyandin.
The project involves laboratories in Moscow (including the Oncogenomics laboratory of the Research Institute of Carcinogenesis of the N.N. Blokhin Russian Cancer Research Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences), St. Petersburg, Kazan, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Vladivostok.
Leading pharmaceutical companies support the program.
As for the state funding of basic research in the field of biomedicine, it remains at an extremely low level in Russia.
"Fundamental research in the field of biomedicine accounts for only 3% of the funding allocated to science from the budget of the Russian Academy of Sciences: in 2013 it amounted to about 1.5 billion rubles. Due to the lack of funding, the activity of Russian scientists in the field of fundamental biomedical research is declining. Thus, according to the journal Acta Naturae, over the past decade, the volume of Russian publications in peer-reviewed journals devoted to various aspects of biomedicine has almost halved. Does this mean that Russian biomedical science is out of the game altogether?" says Alexey Konov, PhD, founding partner of RusBio Ventures.
At the same time, according to him, worldwide interest in biomedicine is only growing. For example, according to the same Acta Naturae, from 2005 to 2009 in the USA about 400 thousand works were mentioned in the Web of Science database in the field of clinical medicine, in the UK this figure for the same period was about 90 thousand, in Israel – about 14 thousand, in Russia only about five thousand. And this is despite the fact that in Soviet times scientific work was one of the most prestigious and highly paid, and such scientific institutions as the Institute of Molecular Biology, the Institute of Molecular Genetics, the Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry were considered among the leading in the world.
"At the same time, applied research in the field of biomedicine in Russia, the result of which is expected in a shorter time, compared with fundamental, receive sufficient funding. This funding amounts to tens of billions of rubles through various funds and federal targeted programs. But it is necessary that fundamental research also receive adequate support," Alexey Konov stressed.
As the participants of the round table noted, partnership between research institutions and participants of the biopharmaceutical market: pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies, venture investment funds can help the development of fundamental biomedical research in Russia.
"Modern biomedical science opens up unprecedented opportunities for us. We have a clear understanding of the causes of diseases, as well as ways to treat them. AstraZeneca strives to provide patients with access to highly effective drugs through innovative research activities. This will significantly improve the quality of healthcare. We are aware that the development of partnerships is an integral part of progress in medical science. Our company continues to actively cooperate with the academic community, the state, commercial companies and non–profit organizations in order to develop innovative drugs that will make a significant contribution to improving the lives of patients," said Pascal Soriot, Chief Executive Officer of AstraZeneca.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru29.10.2013