Target indicators of the genetic technology development program have been changed

Changes were made to Government Resolution No. 479 of April 22, 2019.

The approved indicators also include: the number of registered results of intellectual activity obtained using genetic technologies (by 2030 – 49 units); the number of people trained in the developed programs (from 200 to 500 annually); the number of created national bioresource centers (the indicator has not been established); the number of concluded licensing agreements with organizations for the implementation of developments in practice (25 units).

The program indicators also included the number of developed prototypes of scientific and laboratory equipment for conducting research using genetic technologies, the number of drugs developed with their help, and medical devices for in vitro diagnostics developed and approved for use.

The previous version of the document proposed taking into account the share of scientific articles in the field of genetic technologies published in scientific journals of the Science Network database. The program's implementation indicators also included the creation and modernization of at least 65 research infrastructure facilities, the development of at least six experimental samples of scientific and laboratory equipment, the creation of at least 20 gene therapy drugs and biomedical cell products containing cell lines with genetic modification that have passed the preclinical research stage, and a number of others.

The government also made changes to the planned results for the implementation of the program in relation to biosafety and provision of genetic technologies. It is planned that in the short term (3-6 years) genetic technologies for assessing the immunological status in infectious diseases will be developed, as well as methods for broad screening and genetic analysis based on the use of high-performance genomic sequencing technologies for monitoring the evolution of pathogens of infectious diseases of various etiologies (viral, bacterial and fungal nature).

The list of planned results states that fundamentally new proteins and enzymes, different from natural homologues, with specified properties for laboratory and industrial use should be designed and synthesized in order to obtain drugs for the therapy and diagnosis of infectious diseases, as well as reagents for fundamentally new biochemical or chemical synthesis. In addition, it is necessary to develop prototypes of drugs for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases based on the principles of synthetic biology ("live" vaccines, biological drugs), create a designer of synthetic bacteriophages for the prevention of such diseases using synthetic biology methods, and obtain avirulent strains of pathogenic bacteria using the developed system of multiple editing of bacterial genomes.

Among the planned short-term results are cellular platforms developed through optimization of the genome structure based on the most important groups of industrial microorganisms and mammalian cell cultures for the biosynthesis of target products, including monoclonal antibodies for the prevention of infectious diseases that pose a threat to biological safety.

For the subsection "genetic technologies for medicine", the following provision was added to the list of planned results: original high-tech and biological drugs, biomedical cell products for the prevention and treatment of diseases that are the main causes of death in Russia have been developed using gene technologies and preclinical studies have been conducted. It is necessary to create a system for high-performance drug screening using the "man on a chip" model, as well as tools for designing functional protein structures, including antibodies, and high-performance processes for obtaining them at the development stages.

It is planned that a new direction will be implemented in the part of predictive genetic medicine and pharmacogenetics with the aim of obtaining a practical result - the development of pharmacogenetic approaches to the prevention and treatment of diseases. Among them - forecasting the therapeutic effect of drugs, as well as determining their sensitivity for a specific patient, determining the rate and efficiency of metabolism of a wide range of drugs, determining and individualizing their dosage regimen, forecasting side effects taking into account the mutual influence of the drugs taken.

The Federal Program for the Development of Genetic Technologies was approved in 2019 by Dmitry Medvedev, who at that time held the post of Prime Minister of the Russian Federation. Initially, the program was supposed to be in effect until 2027, but in March 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered its extension until 2030.

It was planned to allocate 127 billion rubles for the implementation of the program in 2019–2027, of which 115 billion are budget funds. The program involves the creation of genomic research centers, the development of genetic editing technologies, the creation of scientific and technological groundwork for medicine, the improvement of the system for preventing biological emergencies and control in this area, as well as other activities.

In July 2025, Putin changed the composition of the Council for the implementation of the program. Five people were excluded from the list, one was added. Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation Ekaterina Priezzheva, who oversees the social block in the department, and Director of the State Scientific Center for Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology of Rospotrebnadzor Ivan Dyatlov are no longer on the Council.