Kiambu Governor, Ferdinand Waititu, on Wednesday, unveiled a Ksh2 Billion project he was undertaking with German investors.
Taking to his social media, the county head revealed that he had met with investors from the European country to partner on a molecular diagnostic centre.
The centre, which will be the first of its kind in Africa, will be set up within the precincts of Thika Level 5 hospital in partnership with GenoMED - a biotechnology company.
"The centre will not only detect and treat cancer in early stages but also deal with hereditary genetic diseases like blood sugar, down syndrome, asthma etc.
"This means that people will not have to travel overseas to get these treatments," he stated.
GenoMed uses medical genomics to improve patient outcomes. and is currently working to translate knowledge of medical genomics - the study of which genes cause disease - into clinical practice.
"We combine biotechnology with Disease Management (DM). We develop new and better drugs, we use existing drugs for new disease indications, and we uncover disease before symptoms arise. By studying disease genes, we hope to make medicine more proactive and disease prevention more effective," reads a section on the company website.
The company delves in drug discovery by pursuing strategic alliances with large, research-oriented pharmaceutical companies to develop new drugs against the target.
Additionally, they use existing drugs for new clinical indications and carry out gene-based diagnostic tests.
Knowing the genes which cause a disease allows a physician to diagnose that disease before symptoms ever become visible. In clinical medicine, the earlier the diagnosis, the better the clinical outcome.
