Does a rising star see the light?

Senator Barak Obama, originally Uploaded by Luke is.

A recent flurry of activity on the genomics front in US politics and policy motivated me to write a run down of some of the latest policy items in development. Whatever the outcome may be, the debate in itself should be enough to drive awareness of these issues and encourage these same discussions here.

In a story that got very little press at the time, but which I think is very interesting, concerns one of the rising stars of the Democratic Party, Senator Barak Obama. This highly touted presidential candidate, known for his big ideas and proactive stance to government, sponsored a bill last August entitled “Genomics and Personalized Medicine Act of 2006â€? (S.3822).

This bill seeks “to improve access to and appropriate utilization of valid, reliable, and accurate molecular genetic tests by all populations thus helping to secure the promise of personalized medicine for all Americans.â€?

The bill would have provided a mix of funding and incentives, along with oversight and bureaucracy, to research, development and the collection of genomics-related information. Though unsuccessful, due in large part to the timing of the bill just before the congressional elections, the fact that he tabled such a bill speaks volumes to his understanding of the importance of genomics research, its potential and various applications. It would appear that one of the White House hopefuls (and in my mind the front-runner for the party) truly gets ‘it.’

More information can be found at Bio-IT World, the folks that pointed me to this story in the first place.

On a related note, US Congressman Xavier Becerra, a Democrat from California, has introduced a draft bill, the Genomic Research and Accessibility Act in the US House of Representatives to prohibit the patenting of human genetic material (see press release). The bill calls for chapter 10 of the title 35 of the United States Code, which deals with the patentability of inventions, to be amended to prohibit patents on human genetic material.

“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no patent may be obtained for a nucleotide sequence, or its functions or correlations, or the naturally occurring products it specifies.â€?

The bill has been referred to the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary for further discussion.

Finally, according to the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), the House Committee on Education and Labor on Wednesday approved a bill (HR 493) under which employers and health insurers could not discriminate against U.S. residents based on the results of genetic tests.

According to Kaiser Network’s Capitol Hill Watch

The House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee must approve the bill before the full House votes on the legislation. The full Senate likely will vote on the bill within two weeks. President Bush has said that he would sign the legislation.