Devices & Diagnostics, Diagnostics, Policy

Battelle: Human Genome Project’s economic impact has reached nearly $1T in US (infographic)

In an attempt to calculate the ROI for an estimated $14.5 billion the U.S. government […]

In an attempt to calculate the ROI for an estimated $14.5 billion the U.S. government pumped into Human Genome Project-related research, Battelle has come up with an astonishing number: $1 trillion.

Over the course of the last 24 years, projects related to sequencing the human genome have yielded an economic impact of $965 billion, including $293 billion in personal income, according to Battelle’s calculations. Those numbers were released today (PDF) in an update to a 2011 report.

Research firm Battelle compiled data from NIH’s funding activities data tool, the National Science Foundation’s Business R&D and Innovation Survey, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and other sources to calculate its estimates.

But Battelle’s calculations have been criticized by economists, both in 2011 and now. Some criticize the fact that the report attributes every activity related to the genome back to the original investment. A former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Jerome Kassirer, told the Boston Globe that fanfare around findings like this could also distort the public’s expectations for scientific research.

The report was funded by members of United for Medical Research, whose members benefit from NIH funding, and Life Technologies, which makes DNA sequencers.

Regardless of how close Battelle’s number is, even the critics aren’t denying the great scientific advances resulting from the HGP. And that number is bound to keep growing as companies bring to market gene-based diagnostics and tools that support personalized medicine. Now if only the same will happen as a result of President Obama’s BRAIN initiative, which is already drawing criticism from the neuroscience community.

Shares0
Shares0