By Maayan Lubell
Almost all of
"This is a major asset and we want to make it accessible toresearchers and developers in order to achieve two things: oneis preventive medicine, and the second is personal medicinetailored to each individual," Netanyahu told his cabinet.
Nadav Davidovitch, head of the Public Health School at BenGurion University in southern
In an interview with Reuters, he voiced concern that privatecompanies would profit by using a publicly-funded database whilecontinuing to make some medication unaffordable to manypatients.
A statement from Netanyahu's office said that mechanismswould be put in place to keep information anonymous whileprotecting privacy, information security and restricting accessas part of the government project.
Patients will be able to refuse the use of their informationfor research, the statement said.
Digital health records are valuable. Big data analytics -comparing information provided by large numbers of patients -give some of the world's biggest drugmakers indications of howmedicines perform in the real world.
Netanyahu said world leaders and international firms havealready shown interest in the project and that the potentialrevenue for
All the world's major drug companies now have departmentsfocused on the use of real-world data across multiple diseases.Several have completed scientific studies using the informationto delve into key areas addressed by their drugs.
They include diabetes studies by AstraZeneca andSanofi, joint research by Pfizer andBristol-Myers Squibb into stroke prevention, and aTakeda Pharmaceutical project in bowel disease.
Real-world evidence involves collecting data outsidetraditional randomised clinical trials, the current goldstandard for judging medicines, and interest in the field isballooning.(