The completion of the first draft of the human genome marks a scientific milestone, but will not lead to any overnight breakthroughs in gene-based medicines.
The mapping of 97 percent of the human genetic code, announced on Monday, means more costly research and development for major drug firms rather than an instant profit bonanza, industry experts said.
``Genomic information per se is interesting but doesn't have much commercial value. It's trying to identify functionality that is the key task facing the drugs industry,'' said Peter Laing, industry analyst at SG Securities.
There are around 1,00,000 genes in the human body, of which up to 5,000 may be important in causing disease. By contrast, the past 100 years of pharmaceutical endeavour have produced just 450 classes of drugs aimed at different biological targets.
Figuring out how all these genes cause disease and finding new drugs to intervene in the process will keep company researchers busy for decades.
Peter Goodfellow, head of discovery at pharmaceuticals giant SmithKline Beecham Plc, sees the genome draft as simply a marker on a long journey for the drugs industry. ``This is not a quantum leap -- it is a continuum. It hasn't fundamentally changed anything about the journey,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``For the last decade we have been using information derived from the human genome for drug discovery and drug development.''
Work on drugs focused on specific genes has been under way for years, even without knowledge of the whole genome. Human Genome Sciences Inc of the United States announced on Friday the first clinical trials of one such product -- a protein, called B-lymphocyte stimulator, that could help people suffering from a defect of the immune system.
The pace of progress promises to accelerate, however, as access to the full genome map lets scientists refine the search for drug candidates, for example by allowing them to check how a product aimed at one target might cross-react elsewhere along the DNA sequence.
In the process, the power of biotechnology firms--often at the cutting edge of gene-based drug research and diagnostic testing -- is increasing. Franco-German group Aventis SA last week signed a deal to pay Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc. $450 million for a stake in the US firm and rights to its gene-based drug discovery technology.
Long-term, better understanding of the fundamental causes of disease and unscrambling the minute differences in genetic code between individuals should lead to new drugs tailored to the needs of each patient.
``Today we have average medicine or the average man. Tomorrow we will have personalised medicine for each individual,'' Bill Castell, chief executive of gene technology company Nycomed Amersham Plc, told a conference last week.
Big pharmaceutical companies talk of a ``land grab'' over the next five years as companies scramble for position to take advantage of the genetic revolution.
Britain's SmithKline and Glaxo Wellcome Plc, linking to form the world's biggest drugs group, say gaining a $4 billion-a-year research and development budget to exploit this is a key goal of their merger.
However, for investors in ``big pharma,'' whose primary focus is on near-term earnings growth, the picture is not clear-cut.
Few doubt that genomics will revolutionise medicine -- but how long will it before the billions being spent today produce new revenue streams? Therapeutic proteins may be the first fruits of the genomic revolution but they are unlikely to be the first ''blockbuster'' gene medicines, since they need to be injected. The real money-spinners will be gene-based small molecule drugs which can be given by tablet, and the first of these still have many years of development ahead of them.
``Genomics and genetics gives us the potential to unravel the basic mechanism of disease which can allow us to give a more targeted treatment,'' said SmithKline's Goodfellow. ``But the cycle time for producing new drugs, allowing for research and pre-clinical and clinical testing, is 12-15 years, so any major new advance is going to take many years to reach patients.''