Johnson & Johnson projects aim to spot who'll get a disease

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) Imagine being able to identify people likely to develop a particular disease and then stop it before it starts.

This isn't a science fiction tale. It's the ambitious goal of three research projects just launched by Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical research arm, Janssen Research & Development, that the company says are aimed at redefining health care.

The projects announced Thursday ultimately aim to prevent illnesses, particularly ones related to aging and lifestyle. That way, as people live longer, fewer of their "golden years" are plagued by poor health, disability and staggering medical bills.

"A hundred years from now, someone's going to look back on us and say, 'Can you believe they waited until you got a disease and then did something?'" Dr. William Hait, head of Janssen R&D, predicted in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press.

Instead, the world's biggest maker of health care products will try to find ways to prevent common, frightening and often deadly disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, cancer, heart disease, immune conditions and Type 1 diabetes, the first planned target. Janssen is partnering with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation to find ways to prevent Type 1 diabetes, which is steadily becoming more prevalent.

Billions of research dollars will be needed to accomplish the goals, and it could easily take a generation, cautions analyst Steve Brozak, president of WBB Securities.

But Brozak said Johnson & Johnson is one of just a few organizations that have the resources money and scientific talent to succeed at what he called a shift to "true modern medicine" that's as revolutionary as Henry Ford creating the manufacturing assembly line.

"This is visionary stuff here," Brozak said. "Nobody's ever tried this."

Still, advances in the understanding of human genetics and diagnostic testing, and existing treatments that already help prevent widespread illnesses, have made Hait optimistic.

For example, blood testing and then use of cholesterol-lowering statin pills to prevent heart attacks and strokes in at-risk patients is widespread in developed countries. Ditto for colonoscopies and removal of any discovered polyps to prevent colon cancer, and Pap smears to spot cervical cell abnormalities that could turn into cancer.

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Johnson & Johnson projects aim to spot who'll get a disease