The United States blocked Russia access to part of the health system data
The US government, protecting the genetic information about its citizens, closed the largest databases of medical data for scientists and organizations from the « disturbing countries ». Along with China, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela, Russia also included in the list of such states. Closed databases contain information about US citizens suffering from drug addiction and alcoholism, as well as having cancer and other diseases, including Parkinson and Alzheimer’s diseases. Without these data, research work and developing new medicines in Russia will become more difficult, scientists surveyed by “Kommersant” say.
National US Health Institutions (NIH) limited access to their databases for researchers from a number of countries, the organization said. The ban applies to scientific institutions from Russia, China, Iran, DPRK, from Cuba and Venezuela. Scientists from these states have lost access to “storage data with controlled access” (Controlled-CCCESS DATA Repositories, Cadr).
We are talking about the bases of medical and scientific organizations that store information about Americans suffering from mental disorders, oncological diseases, abusing alcohol or drugs, ill (or ill) the disease of Alzheimer, Parkinson, Down, etc.
Among the blocked resources was also the base of the National Institute of US Cancer Seer, containing statistics on cancer in all states.
The decision was made on the basis of a decree signed by former US President Joe Bayden in February 2024 to close access to medical and genetic data of Americans for “countries that cause anxiety” (their list is compiled by the US State Department). By signing the document, Mr. Biden said that « the ongoing efforts of a number of countries trying to access the personal data of American citizens remain a serious threat to us. » “Countries that cause concern can use tools such as artificial intelligence for this, as well as manipulate large data arrays in their own interests,” said Mr. Biden.
This is not the first shutdown of Russian researchers from such systems: in June 2022, access was closed to HGMD (Human Gene Mutation Database) – a large database of mitations, which is widely used to interpret the research results, including oncological ones. New NIH restrictions can potentially cause serious damage to Russian science and medicine. Previously, available data from NIH served as a “reserve output” after blocking HGMD, for example, in the research and therapy of cancer, said Sergey Tkachev, junior researcher at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine of Sechenovsky University. Modern pharmaceuticals, he explains, is often based on a comprehensive analysis of the genome, transcriptoma (the totality of all transcriptions, RNA molecules present in a cell or tissue at a certain point in time) and proteoma (information about proteins, their structure, etc.) of patients. This is especially important when creating targeted drugs, such as cancer.
Limiting access to such arrays increases costs and complicates research work in Russia, the expert says.
“As a result, there is a risk that we will be forced to purchase ready -made foreign drugs, which costs more and leads financial resources abroad,” Sergey Tkachev explained. “Moreover, a similar dependence in the field that directly affects the health of the population puts the country in a vulnerable position and enhances the technological gap with world leaders.” With the help of Cadr data, it was possible to study how American society is arranged, what the population is sick with, what potential vulnerabilities it has, Mr. Tkachev admits: “Genetics becomes a powerful analytical tool, since it gives an idea not only about specific diseases, but also about the fundamental laws of health on the scale of the population.”
The most important base for most Russian researchers is Pubmed (a free search engine for biomedical research), which is also supported by NIH, explained “Kommersant” molecular biologist, researcher at Moscow State University and the author of the Science Telegram channel Sergey Kharitonov. “I use it every day, and I didn’t use Cadr,” the expert says. “I think that you can go into the closed database with VPN.” We are doing this with most foreign services, so I don’t think that the lock will be noticeable. ” Sergei Tkachev, in turn, hopes that after 2022, Russian scientific and medical organizations managed to partially localize and save the “most critical” data massifs, and also found alternative sources of their storage.
The Russian authorities plan to create and launch their own “national base of genetic information” until September 1, 2025: this is provided for by Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of January 31, 2024. Access to the system will also have authorities, laboratories, medical organizations, etc. The System Operator is the National Research Center “Kurchatov Institute”, responsible for launching, creating and entering the system is the Ministry of Education and Science. The creation of the base is important from the point of view of “long -term medical, scientific and commercial activities,” says Sergey Tkachev, because “reduces dependence on external suppliers and increases safety when working with personal or sensitive information.”
