Zachary S. Brooks, PhD & Muunda Mudenda, M.S.
- Countries around the world push to create national genomic databases for more broad and cost-effective treatment for their citizens.
- Protecting population data and economic interests form key drivers to create genomic databases.
Improving healthcare outcomes is a stated goal for every national ministry of health. With many countries’ health systems overwhelmed by infectious and chronic diseases (Fazal et al. 2022) and the relative lack of funding to support them (World Bank, 2025), finding models to track, assess, and treat its citizens represents a push to create national genomic databases. The excitement for creating genomic databases is tempered by public health infrastructure investment, but many national projects prioritize strategies shown to reduce healthcare costs or deliver long-term savings, oftentimes necessitating international collaboration.
Genomics research amplifies global impact through data sharing initiatives and international partnerships. Consortia like the Ubiquitous Pharmacogenomics (U-PGx) project in Europe and CPIC internationally join forces. By comparing guidelines and outcomes across health systems, U-PGx and CPIC strengthen data while reducing health inequities (Taylor, et al. 2020). However, these initiatives also pose risks for individual privacy. The development of national databases requires legislation designed to prevent the use of genomic data that could deny fundamental human rights, such as access to quality healthcare. In the United States, GINA and HIPAA serve as examples of legislation designed to protect individual genomic data (National Institutes of Health, 2025). Similar legislative measures have been implemented by countries in Europe, Asia, and South America.
Numerous countries have recognized the importance of genomic databases and have classified them as a strategic resource worth protecting. This recognition and classification represent the importance of genomic data to national security and economic competitiveness (Smith & Bernot, 2024). From a security perspective, it is important for nations to protect this classification because unauthorized or malicious access to genomic data can lead to misuse, rendering the nation vulnerable to crippling health and economic attacks. Economically, genomic data is central to creating a competitive innovation ecosystem in the health and pharmaceutical sectors. The commercial value of genomic databases cannot be overstated. Pharmacogenomics (PGx) offers the tools—genomic projects unlock the strategy.
References
- Fazal, F., Saleem, T., Ur Rehman, M. E., Haider, T., Khalid, A. R., Tanveer, U., Mustafa, H., Tanveer, J., & Noor, A. (2022). The rising cost of healthcare and its contribution to the worsening disease burden in developing countries. Annals of Medicine and Surgery, 82(3), 104683. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amsu.2022.104683
- Smith, Marcus, and Ausma Bernot. 2024. “Government and Commercial Interests in Genomics: Improving Data Security and Regulation”. Law, Technology and Humans 6 (1):88-100. https://doi.org/10.5204/lthj.3256.
- Taylor C, Crosby I, Yip V, Maguire P, Pirmohamed M, Turner RM. A Review of the Important Role of CYP2D6 in Pharmacogenomics. Genes (Basel). 2020;11(11):1295. Published 2020 Oct 30. doi:10.3390/genes11111295
World Bank. (2025). Overview. World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/health/overview