Genomas program will help in the prevention and treatment of diseases in the Brazilian population
The initiative aims to advance innovative therapies and form a database with 100,000 complete genomes
Oct 16, The Genomas Brasil Program was launched on Wednesday (14) by President Jair Bolsonaro. The project will encourage scientific and technological development in the areas of genomics and precision health within the scope of the Unified Health System (SUS); in addition to boosting the development of the national genomic industry.
In practice, the new program will help advance medical prevention, treatment and diagnostics, fund research, provide technological advances in relation to innovative therapies and train new scientists capable of deciphering the relationship between the genetic code and diseases in our population.
According to the Ministry of Health, the investment planned in the program for the first four years is at least R $ 600 million.
The goal of Genomas Brasil is to create, in the coming years, a national database with 100 thousand complete genomes of Brazilians. “This database will serve to better understand the relationship between genes and diseases in our people. And to develop personalized technologies to find a cure for rare and complex diseases ”, said Hélio Angotti Neto, secretary of science, technology, innovation and strategic inputs in health, from the Ministry of Health.
The project will sequence genes from carriers of rare, cardiac, cancer and infectious diseases, such as Covid-19. The choice of diseases, according to the Ministry of Health, took into account the number of cases in the country and the high cost they generate to SUS.
With the Genomas Brasil Program, the idea is also to make Brazil one of the global leaders in the field of precision medicine. "We will bring everyone together, and we will have the largest database in the world, so that we can be an example of this model, of this therapy in the world," said Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello.
The program was instituted by Decree 1,949 / 20 published in August of this year in the Federal Official Gazette.