The article under review is an editorial from internationally respected British Medical Journal entitled Genetics and Developing Countries: the human genome has unifying messages as well as the potential to divide. This article has been written as a contribution to current debates about biotechnology policy in and for Third World countries. Inevitably it has set out the issue in relatively simple terms and readers are encouraged to consult the cited texts and other sources for more detailed discussion of the issues.
With the decoding of the sequence of the human genome the new era in medicine has started. The emergence of human genome project gave the possibility to diagnose, prevent and treat the diseases which were an unsolvable problem for the old medicine. The human genome offers opportunities for understanding mechanisms of disease and developing new drugs and vaccines. All the drugs in the world act on only 479 known molecular targets.
At a conservative estimate, if only 10% of the genome represents targets for new drugs the possibility exists for developing at least 3000 new molecular entities to combat disease. However the technologies for production of new medicine are too expensive for developing countries and they cannot afford the researches in this field. As a way out the author offers to share scientific results of the rich countries received within human genome project with developing countries.
Moreover, not only is biotechnology now evolving very rapidly, it is almost certainly going to play a fundamental role in future development policies in both the developed and developing countries. It promises immense gains in health care sphere. But it also interferes with the living processes in ways, and to degrees that have never occurred before in human history. The advent of biotechnology may adopt the tendency which will lead to the increase of inequality in health care between rich and poor countries more deeply than the medicine has ever experienced.
The suggestion given in the article is that the governments of rich and poor countries must establish new initiatives, capabilities and institutions that can promote and support cooperation in medical issues.
Reference Bloom, B. R. , Trach, D. D. “Genetics and Developing Countries: the human genome has unifying messages as well as the potential to divide” British Medical Journal Vol. 32228 (April 2001): 1006-1007.
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