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The
Japanese have commenced their own local SNP project, specifically
for the Japanese population. The country’s Ministry of International
Trade and Industry is organising the project jointly with
the Ministry of Education, and the Science and Technology
Agency. The total budget is likely to exceed Yen10 billion.
The
programme will run until March 2000, and will involve a
number of companies and universities. Selected diseases
will be targeted, including rheumatoid arthritis, cancer
and diabetes. Discussions are now underway on who should
do the work and how to make the database accessible.
The
research director at Nippon Glaxo, Yoshiji Fujita, said
in an interview with Pharma Japan, "Genomics... and
proteomics will form the basis of our integrated approach
in the new generation of drug discovery by using bioinformatics
as the axis. This may change the whole process of target
finding, lead finding, pre-clinical, clinical trials, NDAs,
diagnostics and marketing." He did not know why no
Japanese companies were involved in the SNP Consortium,
but hoped domestic companies would participate in either
project if given the opportunity.
- Hitachi
Ltd, Takeda Chemical Industries and Juntendo University
Faculty of Medicine announced their own SNP identification
collaboration in June 1999, under the auspices of the
Japan Biotechnology Industry Consortium. Lasting for one
year, the project will focus on allergic diseases. Takeda
will use the information in its drug discovery efforts,
with Hitachi building a large-scale, rapid SNP identification
system. Some 200 patients with atopic dermatitis, and
100 healthy controls, will be used to identify at least
10 groups of cytokines and cytokine receptor genes.
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