Leveraging Genomic Data

While the entire pharma world is still grappling with the issue of tariffs by the US and its impact on the US consumers as well as various other countries (though there is 90-day relief on the issue), India has achieved a significant step in the healthcare and medicines sector.

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There is encouraging news from the Genome India project that has the potential to advance the precision medicines field.

Preliminary findings of the Genome India project, which were revealed last month, show that it has uncovered over 180 million genetic variants. These 180 million unique differences in DNA have been uncovered from the genome data of 9,772 individuals from diverse populations across India. A gene variant is a permanent change in the DNA sequence that makes up a gene. The genetic variations among individuals are considered to be crucial for understanding our disease predispositions and rare inherited disorders.

Along with the genome data of these individuals, this database includes over 30 health indicators for each of them. They include weight, height, blood pressure, blood sugar, lipid levels and liver and kidney functions. This is expected to help the researchers to understand how our genomes connect to our health. With 4.5 petabytes of data generated through this project, India is described as the world's largest genetic lab. Such a large biological data was gathered in just five years.