Questionnaire for patients undergoing therapy for the hepatitis C (translated to English from Slovenian)

We are a student research team, participating in the 2012 iGEM competition and in our project we are developing a new type of a biological drug delivery system as a new treatment possibility.

This questionnaire is anonymous and the answers will help us with our project.

Instructions: Circle the number before the answer that is most true for you. Please answer honestly and skip any questions you do not wish to answer.

Age:...............

Education:

Student

University education

PhD

A short description of our project:

Biopharmaceuticals are among most effective and most expensive drugs for the treatment of viral hepatitis, diabetes, cancer and other diseases. Standard therapy with biological drugs requires multiple doses, often as daily or weekly injections of the biological drug, that is usually obtained from mammalian cell cultures and purified. The idea of our project is to use drug producing cells and enclose them in microcapsules that would be administered directly into the target tissue. The therapy would allow for noninvasive regulation under medical supervision. It would be possible to control and eventually destroy the therapeutical cells, when the therapy is no longer needed. We believe this new approach would reduce side effects, since the therapeutic would be continuously synthesised in its target tissue and drug concentrations elsewhere in the body would be lower. This kind of therapy would be more efficient and widely available compared to standard treatments in use today.

1. Do you understand the description of our project? Yes No Not really, I would like to know more about .... 2. Are you receiving treatment with biopharmaceuticals? Yes No Not currently, but I have previously. 3. Do you agree that biopharmaceuticals in Slovenia are available to all patients who need them? Yes No I do not know 4. Do you believe that the high price limits the use of biopharmaceuticals? Yes No Partially I do not know 5. Are you experiencing any adverse effects because of the interferon treatment? No side effects Mild side effects Strong side effects I haven't been receiving therapy yet 6. How much does the need for the repetitive injections of interferon adversely affect the quality of your life? Strongly Medium Not at all 7. Do you think it would be beneficial to develop a therapy with human cells which would produce biological drugs inside the diseased tissue and thus reduce both side effects and the need for frequent drug application? Yes No Maybe 8. Which of the following would be most important for you regarding that kind of treatment: Efficiency Safety Price Ethical considerations 9. Would you participate in a clinical study using that kind of therapy? Yes No Maybe 10. Would you change your mind if you knew the cells are genetically modified? Yes No 11. Do you know what synthetic biology is? Yes No I have heard about it 12. Do you support the use of synthetic biology for solving health issues and developing biofuels or new materials? Yes No Maybe 13. Would you be willing to consume genetically modified food (GM food) that would have better taste, looked more appealing or would be healthier in general? Yes No Maybe