ATLANTA _ The exponential growth in gene sequencing data hasaltered dramatically the debate about the impact of biotechnology onhealth care, but experts say little progress has been made infashioning public policies to handle the inevitable and sweepingchanges.

David Galas, of Darwin Molecular Corp., said the information boomfrom the Human Genome Project is creating a sense of urgency indealing with social, medical and economic issues being raised by theflood of data.

"We understand fewer than 1 percent of the genome in anymeaningful way," he said. "So in the future most drugs will bedirected at genes we don't know about or aren't discovered. . . . Togo from gene sequence data to a new therapy is very difficult andtakes a lot of science, but it is beginning to happen and it will changethe way we look at pharmaceutical products."

Galas, president and chief scientific officer for Bothell, Wash.-basedDarwin Molecular, was among the scientists who discussed thechallenge of public acceptance of biotechnology at the annualmeeting of the American Association for the Advancement ofScience, which began here Thursday and winds up today.

Galas said millions of dollars are spent each year by the U.S.Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health to studythe impact of the genome project, but the debate has not beenembraced by the public or the nation's elected officials.

To underscore the scope of biotechnology's "ongoing revolution,"Galas highlighted a number of issues facing medical practitioners.

For example, he said, "It has been a basic operative assumption thatmedicine is driven by the fact patients are the same. That willchange."

Therapy based on genetics, he added, also raises the issue of patientstratification according to predisposition to certain diseases. And aspredictive testing becomes more available "it will couple diagnosticsto therapeutics in a way that is unprecedented."

On the social and political policy front, Galas said, predictive testingalso raises questions about health care access based on broad issuesinvolving insurance coverage, discrimination and privacy. Andgovernment standards for public health, such as exposure tochemicals and radiation, traditionally are based on people reacting tothem in a similar manner. But Galas noted that genetics haspinpointed genes that control repair of DNA, resulting in a variety ofresponses to those toxins.

Biotechnology, Galas warned, should not get "too far in front" of thepublic's understanding of it. The danger, he said, is the possibility ofa backlash of ill-informed policy making and legislation. n

-- Charles Craig

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.