Amgen, Brigham and Women's Hospital, NIH to launch women's health genome study

Biotechnology company Amgen, Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital and NIH plan to launch the Women's Health Genome Study -- which aims to discover the genetic causes of disorders affecting women, including breast cancer -- the Wall Street Journal reports.

The study will analyze the DNA of 28,000 women who participated in the Women's Health Study.

Researchers -- who will analyze 317,000 genetic variations from each participant's DNA to ascertain whether similar genetic variations are present in women who have developed such diseases or conditions as breast cancer, osteoporosis and heart disease -- say the results will help physicians ascertain a woman's risk for disease and design more effective treatments.

According to the Journal, Amgen will purchase the screening equipment necessary to create genetic profiles for each participant.

The company will then provide the data to Paul Ridker, director of the Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Brigham and Harvard Medical School and the lead researcher for the study, the Journal reports.

Under the terms of the study, results will be posted in a public database through NIH to preclude any efforts to patent the associations between genes and diseases identified in the study and to make the data available to other researchers.

"The overwhelming primary aim [of the study] is to get the vast amount of these data in the public domain as quickly as possible so they can immediately advance patient care," Ridker said.

According to the Journal, the results describing genes and diseases cannot be patented once in the public domain.

However, scientists can use the data to "springboard" their research that can be patented, the Journal reports.

"The purpose is to make a contribution to the global knowledge base," Joseph Miletich, Amgen's senior vice president of research and development, said, adding that the company "isn't looking for any rights to anything."

NIH is developing guidelines for genome-wide association studies that are expected to discourage patenting "fundamental discovery" of basic links between genes and diseases, the Journal reports (Winslow/Regalado, Wall Street Journal, 10/24).