Last month, a consultative meeting was held in the Prime Minister’s Office to discuss ways of expanding the scope of genetic studies and the Armenian Genome project.
Referring to the purpose of the discussion, then Acting Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said that Armenia has received numerous proposals for investing in the fight against cancer.
“The number of these proposals and ideas is so great that there is a need to understand their interconnectivity, namely to what extent they are consistent with the general trends as far as they complement or contradict each other. I think that today’s discussions will help us exchange information about the general field and trends in order to form a general idea,” said Pashinyan.
The co-authors of the project, New Ventures Funds general partner Harry Glorikian and Director of Armenia’s National Academy of Science’s Molecular Biology Institute Arsen Arakelyan presented the details of the project. The project seeks to increase the number of genetic findings in the field of healthcare through the development of digital health facilities and related infrastructures.
The project is tentatively estimated at to cost $10 million. During the exchange of views that followed, the project’s impact inclusive of its medical, scientific, research, technological components, its eventual economic consequences, the scope of potential investors and other issues were discussed.
Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobyan, who chairs the board of trustees of the City of Smile charity foundation, touched upon the propose investment programs to fight cancer and suggested that these proposals should be considered in the context of the project.
The meeting decided to launch a project called Armenian Genome, and to appoint the Institute of Molecular Biology to oversee the implementation of the project. Pashninyan instructed the Healthcare Ministry and the Institute of Molecular Biology to jointly develop and submit a detailed project strategy, a roadmap and a budget schedule.
