Truveta's $320M Investment: Building the World's Largest Genetic Database

In a significant move to advance medical research and healthcare management, Truveta, a leading healthcare data and analytics company, has announced a strategic investment of $320 million from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Illumina, and a consortium of 17 U.S. health systems. This investment, valued at over $1 billion, will enable Truveta to launch the Truveta Genome Project, aiming to create the world's largest and most diverse database of genotypic and phenotypic information.

The Truveta Genome Project, a collaboration between leading U.S. health systems, including Advocate Health, CommonSpirit Health, Henry Ford Health, Northwell Health, Providence, and Trinity Health, will generate genetic data on tens of millions of consented and de-identified volunteers. This groundbreaking initiative will be over ten times the scale of previous endeavors, ensuring comprehensive representation across ancestries, ethnicities, genders, and other social drivers of health. The project will unlock profound insights into how genetics impact health, accelerating drug discovery, optimizing clinical trials, and transforming how diseases are prevented, diagnosed, and cured.

Regeneron Genetics Center (RGC) will sequence the exomes of the first ten million volunteers, with Microsoft Azure serving as the exclusive cloud provider for the Truveta Genome Project. Healthcare sites across the US will obtain patient consent to utilize leftover biospecimens from routine lab tests linked to their de-identified medical records for anonymized genetic research. The biospecimens will be sent to RGC for genetic sequencing, while preserving patient anonymity. After initial sequencing, leftover biospecimens will be stored to support future multi-omics sequencing. All de-identified sequencing data will be added to Truveta Data, enabling biopharma and academic research to develop AI accelerating drug discovery, optimizing clinical trials, and transforming healthcare management.

Terry Myerson, CEO and co-founder of Truveta, expressed his enthusiasm about the project: "Just like volunteering to be an organ donor on your driver's license is a simple act of service with a profound impact, the Truveta Genome Project enables each of us to anonymously contribute to dramatically accelerate progress in discovering the science of humanity, improving the health of our families and communities, and lowering the cost of care. Discoveries from smaller datasets before today’s AI have led to important new approaches to help prevent heart disease and restore hearing in children with certain forms of congenital deafness – it is so exciting to envision where a complete representative genomic dataset will guide us."

Michael Dowling, Northwell Health CEO, shared his optimism about the project's potential: "The Truveta Genome Project has the potential to transform healthcare from treating disease to preventing disease, and we are excited to make it happen."

Aris Baras, M.D., Senior Vice President at Regeneron and Head of RGC, highlighted the project's significance: "The scale and diversity of the Truveta Genome Project will enable us to explore the complex interplay between genetics and health in unprecedented detail. With nearly three million exomes sequenced at RGC to date, Regeneron scientists have already identified dozens of genetic-based drug targets for a wide range of conditions. As we continue to scale our genomics initiatives, we seek more targets and medicines, while expanding the potential impact of our research to optimize clinical trials and personalize healthcare delivery."

The Truveta Genome Project is poised to revolutionize drug discovery, healthcare management, and patient outcomes by providing an unparalleled understanding of the genetic factors that contribute to health and disease. With the support of Regeneron, Illumina, and health systems across the US, Truveta is well-positioned to deliver on its mission to improve the health of families and communities worldwide.

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