WisBusiness: Wisconsin positioned to capitalize on personalized health care industry

Thanks to the Wisconsin Genomics Initiative, the Badger State is an international leader in the push for personalized health care using genetic markers, medical history and other information to prevent and treat a wide range of diseases.

And that, says Marshfield Clinic researcher Catherine McCarty, means Wisconsin-based biotech companies — specifically those that deal in diagnostics — should be in a good position to grow.

McCarty was one of five panelists to discuss the field of health informatics as hundreds of biotech business leaders and researchers gathered at the BioForward Vision Summit 2010 in Madison on Wednesday.

She spoke about how the analysis of large DNA databases, health informatics and breakthroughs in regenerative medicine should help doctors target drugs to specific patients needs and reduce overall health care costs.

McCarty said the genomics initiative includes information on the genetic makeup of 20,000 people in the Marshfield area, as well as information on other Wisconsin residents from Milwaukee, Madison and other areas of the state.

“This effort will translate genetic data into specific knowledge about disease that is clinically relevant and will enhance patient care,” she said, including being able to predict the likelihood of developing heart disease or diabetes.

Murray Brilliant, director of the Center for Human Genetics at the Marshfield Clinic, lauded legislators and Gov. Jim Doyle for allocating $2 million in 2010 to continue the WGI effort.

“It is remarkable to get this support during the worst fiscal crisis in the past 70 years,” he said. “But they recognize that this can cut costs, improve care and strengthen the Wisconsin economy.”

Brilliant, McCarthy and other panelists said Wisconsin has an unique opportunity to develop more biotech and health care tools because of WGI.

They said WGI’s research goals are also the highest grant priorities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They said they believe the NIH, other government agencies and national foundations will be looking to support these kinds of initiatives. As a result, support for WGI will be leveraged into potentially new NIH, government and national research dollars.

They also said discoveries growing out of the initiative will spawn spin-off companies, which will create new high tech jobs and attract entrepreneurial support to the state.

In addition, they predicted the program will lead to additional research on science-based prevention of disease, an approach that will draw new pharmaceutical industry to the state because these firms are eager to pursue new therapies that prevent disease in at-risk individuals, rather than only focusing on the treatment of existent disease.

As WGI identifies new targets for disease prevention, Wisconsin will become an irresistibly attractive site for the pharmaceutical industry expansion, the panelists said.

Bryan Renk, executive director of BioForward, said the efforts of Badger State researchers are continuing to grow jobs, even in this down economy.

“In talking with leaders of our member companies, I’d have to say that our sector wasn’t hit has hard as others,” he said. “Things were hard in 2009, but they picked up in the first quarter of 2010 and are still going strong.”

However, he acknowledged that the recession has made it hard for many start-ups to raise money.

“But I’m optimistic that things will get better,” he said, citing the recent sale of Wauwatosa-based Zystor Therapeutics to BioMarin, a California pharmaceutical company. BioMarin will pay $22 million for the privately held Zystor and up to $93 million more if some development, regulatory and commercial milestones are reached, officials said.

On a down note, Renk said he was disappointed that a judge restricted federal funding this week for embryonic stem cell research.

“Like many others have said, I’m afraid this will have a chilling effect on stem cell and other research,” he mused.

“I spent 10 years at WARF and did some of the first commercialization work on stem cells,” he said. “I thought all this debate was over when President Obama issued his executive order in 2009 that expanded embryonic stem cell research.”

Now, he said he worries that clinical trials by Geron to treat spinal cord injuries with embryonic stem cells may be affected.

“This may put a clamp on getting other stem cell therapies commercialized because of legal issues and that’s not a good thing,” he said.

— By Brian E. Clark

For WisBusiness.com


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