ETHICAL,LEGAL,AND SOCIAL ISSUES
ETHICAL ISSUES
WHO IS IN GAIN?
Precision medicine has three main beneficiaries: patients, the pharmaceutical industry, and society. With safer and more effective treatments, the patients will be spending less time staying at hospitals and doctor offices, and more time living life. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical industry gains increased productivity and better product lines. Decreasing health care expenditures, the society will continue to gain more [I-I1].
LEGAL ISSUES
President Barack Obama
When former President Barack Obama launched the Precision Medicine Initiative, he said, “We may be able to accelerate the process of discovering cures in ways we’ve never seen before”. High hopes in revolutionizing medicine, Obama in the following year asked Congress for $309 million to scale up the initiative, almost all of it for the National Institutes of Health [I-I2].
President Donald Trump
In 2018, President Donald Trump proposed budget calls for a $5.8 billion cut to the National Institutes of Heath (NIH), which represents the largest chunk of the $15 billion reduction to the entire Department of Health and Human Services. Although the budget cuts are not directly affecting precision medicine, Edward Abrahamas, president for the Personalized Medicine Coalition, undoubtedly agrees that the 20% reduction will impact research projects, including the Precision Medicine Initiative [I-I3].
intellectual property questions
To not with stand the prominent benefits offered by precision medicine, there are numerous policy and legal issues, including ones related to the FDA approving products and drugs, intellectual property rights in genes and genetic information, and reimbursement of targeted therapies. After all those issues are considered, precision medicine's full promise will be recognized [I-I6].