12 Sep NIH’s Collins: All of Us initiative should be fully enrolled by 2022

Posted at 11:18h in All of Us by

By Mark McCarty, BioWorld

Francis Collins, director of the U.S. NIH, said in a public forum that his agency is “really bullish” about precision medicine. Precision medicine requires mounds of data to be viable; however, the necessary data may soon be available. Collins said the NIH’s All of Us research program has drawn the interest of more than 300,000 willing participants to date, adding that the target enrollment of 1 million should be accomplished before the end of 2022.

Collins gave the keynote speech at the 2019 FDA Science Forum, noting that he has been witness to “an extraordinary partnership between NIH and FDA.” While the NIH is enthusiastic about precision medicine, researchers “need a lot of data about a lot of people” to make precision medicine a clinical reality, Collins said. In terms of enrollment, the NIH initiative is aiming for rural communities and the economically disadvantaged, a focus Collins said will help ease disparities.

There is a need to guard enrollee data and privacy, but unlike the participants in most clinical trials, “they will be getting their data back” from All of Us, Collins said.

– Reposted from BioWorld MedTech