Sturgeon to promise £4.2m for new types of medicine research

The First Minister is to outline plans to make Scotland a “world leader” in precision medicine, backed by funding of £4.2 million.

Nicola Sturgeon will address the Precision Medicine Summit in Perth today.

The gathering will bring together representatives from industry, the NHS, government and academia.

Precision medicine is the tailoring of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient.

Ms Sturgeon is expected to say: “Precision medicine has huge potential for transforming the way illnesses are treated, promising a revolution in healthcare – and Scotland has the potential to be a world leader in the field.”

The investment of £4.2m over the next three years will be targeted in a number of different ways, she will tell delegates. The First Minister will say: “It will ensure that Scottish patients, by having their genomes sequenced, can continue to receive more accurate and precise diagnoses.

“We’ll also invest in the workforce that Scotland will need for all of this.

“As part of that, we will fund the creation of training schemes and new resources for staff – within our clinical and laboratory services and our NHS.

“Finally, we will ensure Scotland has a central facility for storing genomic data which will allow for more efficient sharing and analysis of data for clinical diagnoses and valuable future research.

“That will be good for patients, as we come up with better treatments. And it will of course have economic benefits, if those treatments have application around the world.”