BioWorld International Correspondent

LONDON - The UK government announced a £50 million (US$83 million) program over the next three years to expand the use of genetic testing in the National Health Service (NHS), with the aim of making the UK a leader in genetics-based health care.

A policy paper detailing how the money will be spent says, "Genetics will permeate health care, bringing more accurate diagnosis, more personalized prediction of risk, new drugs and therapies." Treatment will be better targeted to the disease and to an individual's genetic profile.

In the forward to the paper, "Our inheritance, our future - realizing the potential of genetics in the NHS," Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "I am absolutely determined that the NHS should be able to respond to these advances so the benefits of genetics and the more personalized and improved health care it will bring are available to all."

Over time more will be known about the genetic features of common diseases such as diabetes and heart disease, and the way factors such as diet and smoking interact with genes to increase the likelihood of developing a given disease. "There will then be an option to test for a predisposition to disease, or a higher than normal risk," the policy paper says. Treatment, lifestyle advice and monitoring aimed at disease prevention could then be tailored to suit each individual.

The government acknowledged that realizing the benefits of human genetics will require greater acceptance and confidence from the public. It said it is committed to openness and transparency in genetic policymaking, and to dealing with ethical and social issues that arise.

There will be new legislation to ban DNA theft, and it will become an offense to test someone's DNA without his or her consent. Insurance companies already have undertaken not to make "unacceptable use" of genetic tests in setting life insurance premiums.

The policy paper says the greatest impact on health care in the short term likely is to come from pharmacogenomics. About £4 million will be invested to fund pharmacogenomic research on existing medicines, and the first university chair and department in pharmacogenomics will be set up.

Money also will be spent on existing centers of expertise, to strengthen them and enable them to diffuse skills across the NHS. The intention is that gene testing will be integrated into clinical specialties in hospitals and into primary care, and a Genetics Education and Development Center will be founded to spearhead education and training in genetics for all health care staff.

At the same time £18 million will be spent on capital improvements to genetics testing laboratories, cutting the time taken for results to be processed.

A number of schemes will be set up to pilot the introduction of large-scale screening programs, including testing people at risk of familial cancers and the identification and treatment of people with hypercholesterolemia, a cause of heart attack at an early age.

The government also asked its advisory group, the Human Genetics Commission, to consider the case for screening babies at birth and storing genetic profiles for future use in tailoring health care.

Some of the funding will go to new research to help convert advances in genetics into better patient care, including £3 million to support gene therapy research on single-gene disorders, and £2.5 million for gene therapy research in cystic fibrosis. A further £4 million will be spent on gene vector production facilities for the NHS and publicly funded researchers.