Diverse global bio bank to make medicine more effective globally
Masud Parvez
Creating Breakthroughs by Leaders, Strategy & Incredible Digital Products, Services | TEDx & Keynote Speaker | CIO
Recently I wrote an article about, Healthcare 4.0 is not a myth anymore and it's happening now. There are 12 technology and Innovations are going to reshape the healthcare on 2020. Though my this article series I will give you a good understanding of each of this technology innovations and why they are reshape the healthcare on 2020. Let's call this series care2020 (#care2020) and this is the part 3. Previous was one was - A hammer on diabetes !
Personalized medication. Did you hear or familiar with personalized medicine? Most likely yes! A major limitation threatens to hamper the era of personalized medicine due to my different human races and how they are distributed all over the globe. Interestingly People of Caucasian descent are a minority in the global population yet make up nearly 80% of the subjects in human-genome research, is creating lots of blind spots in drug research. That's why we saw different drugs are having different effectiveness in different region, and eventually creating negative impact as well. There are a controversial stories around the globe about it.
To respond that issue, Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, founded 54gene. 54gene is an initiative which is focusing for Africa’s 54 countries, the Nigeria-based startup is sourcing genetic material from volunteers across the continent, to make drug research and development more equitable.
We all know the the ugly history of colonial exploitation in Africa and those can't be removed from the pages of history. If companies are going to profit by developing marketable drugs based on the DNA of African people, Africa should benefit: so, when partnering with companies, 54gene prioritizes those that commit to including African countries in marketing plans for any resulting drugs.
Ene-Obong says
If we are part of the pathway for drug creation, then maybe we can also become part of the pathway to get these drugs into Africa .
The next article is on 4nd technology and innovation, will reshape the healthcare in 2020 - A mind reader smartboard to enable disabled people.
