France is to invest some €670 million in personalized medicine, RFI reports. In particular, those fund are to go toward the establishment of a dozen genome sequencing centers to help treat cancer, diabetes, and rare diseases, it adds.
This move comes in response to a report recently submitted by medical experts to Prime Minister Manuel Valls, according to French Health Minister Marisol Touraine. Sequencing, RFI adds, will enable clinicians to make more precise diagnoses and avoid unnecessary tests. For instance, sequencing tumors, it says, can better guide treatment decisions as well as enable the testing of new therapies.
"Genome-related medicine should also extend specialists' knowledge of common complaints like diabetes and allow patients suffering from rare diseases to find suitable treatment more quickly," it adds.
Touraine adds that some of the funds will come from companies. RFI notes that firms like Google, Apple, and Facebook are all interested in the field.