人类基因组计划(HGP):带来近1万亿美元的经济回报
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今天,巴特尔纪念研究所(Battelle Memorial Institute)公布的一项报告《基因组学对经济的影响》指出,人类基因组计划(Human Genome Project, 1988-2003)的带来的经济利益正在持续增长,在结束后的十年里,该项目给人类带来了近1万亿美元的经济收益。
这项极具争议性的研究报告发现,十年前美国在人... |
今天,巴特尔纪念研究所(Battelle Memorial Institute)公布的一项报告《基因组学对经济的影响》指出,人类基因组计划(Human Genome Project, 1988-2003)的带来的经济利益正在持续增长,在结束后的十年里,该项目给人类带来了近1万亿美元的经济收益。
这项极具争议性的研究报告发现,十年前美国在人类基因组计划上投入的145亿美元带来超过60倍的回报。
研究人员表示,人类基因组测序产生的广泛的经济影响正在持续增长。具体而言,通过测序人类DNA的努力,这项计划创造了 9660 亿美元的经济影响和 590 亿美元的税入。
数十家生物技术公司受益于基因组计划产生的里程碑式知识,而开辟了生命科学研究领域的新时代。十年前,首次完整测序人类基因组花费了145亿美元,而今天完整测序一个人的基因组只需要 1000 美元和 1 天时间。
反对削减联邦科研经费的美国国家卫生研究院则表示,现在还不是削减生物医学研究经费的时候,这份报告证明,生命科学及医学领域的投资对于美国的未来来说是极为重要的。
原文链接:
Economic return from Human Genome Project grows
The financial benefit of the project to decode the human genome continues to grow, according to a controversial report released today by the Battelle Memorial Institute. A decade after the project ended, the benefit now hovers near US$1 trillion.
The Human Genome Project, an international effort led by the United States that ran from 1988 to 2003, has delivered $178 to the US economy for every public dollar spent on the original sequencing, the report says. That is 26% greater than the $141 return-per-dollar that Battelle, a research contractor based in Columbus, Ohio, had calculated in 2011, in its first attempt to estimate the scientific effort’s financial reach.
"The economic impacts generated by the sequencing of the human genome are large, widespread and continue to grow," says Martin Grueber, the primary author of the report and a research leader in Battelle's technology partnership practice.
Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, the organization that spearheaded the genome project, used the report to argue against reductions in federal research spending. "Now is not the time to cut back on biomedical research, when the evidence proves this is such a profoundly important investment in America's future," he says.
But economists who were not involved in the study say that its numbers are not credible. Critics add that its basic approach is flawed, because it quantifies the economic activity generated by the Human Genome Project instead of its impact on human health, which can be judged by metrics such as patient outcomes and production of drugs and diagnostics.
Robert Topel, an economist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in Illinois, says that the benefits of health research are not measured in effect on gross domestic product, productivity or jobs. "The question is: what health benefits have people got out of it, and what will they get in the future?" he says.
来源:生物360
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