SAS to team up with pharms giant on bespoke drugs

Data mining specialist, SAS Institute, is in talks with a major pharmaceutical company which could result in bespoke medication based on the genetic make-up of individual people.

The company's PharmaHealth Technologies division has been developing a modified version of its Enterprise Miner software to map genetic patterns and develop treatments for individuals based on their genetic structure.

Now the company is on the verge of announcing a major deal that could put that theory into practice. The company was unable to name its potential partner, but a source close to the situation hinted that British pharmaceutical giant, Glaxo Wellcome, is the company involved.

Mapping the 80,000 to 100,000 genes that control the human body's building and maintenance activities is high-profile project. Last week US biotech company Celera announced it had successfully mapped 90 per cent - giving it the edge over the publicly funded international Human Genome Project, which is not expected to reach the same point for several months.

Edward Helton, PharmaHealth's chief clinical scientist, said: "This is a project of major proportions. We have an enormous amount of data."

SAS is currently using its analysis tools to explore that genetic data and begin to structure possible treatments. According to Helton, the first real benefit will be to identify monogenic diseases, like multiple sclerosis and muscular dystrophy, where there is an abnormality in one gene. Then the challenge will move to polygenic diseases, he said, where more than one gene causes a problem - like Alzheimer's disease and depression.

Helton added that within ten years we could see people carrying smartcards containing their genetic information.

But Michael Robertson, programme manager at PharmaHealth, warned that such technological advances could be delayed by ethical arguments. "There are a lot of ethical, moral and privacy issues to deal with. I don't think the governments of most European countries or the US government have dealt with the issues yet," he said.

"It's extremely important for people to be aware of what's going on. The project requires the attention of the public, governments and the pharmaceutical industry," he added.

Yvette Cooper, UK Public Health Minister, acknowledged that the focus of healthcare is still likely to shift further from diagnosis and treatment, to protection and prevention as a result of mapping the human genome.