An article just released today in Genome Medical, and available here to download in its entirety, reports on a groundbreaking study of over 650 individuals who have received whole genome sequencing as a predisposition screening tool.
Decoding FDA DTC Policy in the Genetic Testing Space: The Complete Series
Prefer to read all five posts about the recent FDA Pharmacogenetics Test Report activity at once? We have compiled the full week here into this one post…
Decoding FDA DTC Policy: Part 5 – Final Thoughts
Over the course of this week, we have covered a variety of related topics that arose from the recent FDA activity around direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing. Because this is so new, much is yet unknown, so the best we can do today is speculate. However, we thought we would wrap up today with a few parting ideas to consider…
Decoding FDA DTC Policy: Part 4 – The Physician/Genetic Counselor Perspective
The National Society of Genetic Counselor’s position statement on DTC testing from 2015 states that consumers have the right to make an informed decision on DTC genetic testing. As with other DTC tests based on SNP array technology, it is important that companies offering these tests are very clear when discussing their limitations. For instance, the 23andMe Personal Genome Service…
Decoding FDA DTC Policy: Part 3 – The November 1 Warning Shots
One day following the Personal Genome Service Pharmacogenetic Reports (PGSPR) approval release, on Thursday, November 1, 2018, Jeffrey Shuren, M.D., J.D. (the Director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health), together with Janet Woodcock, M.D., (the Director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research) published a statement to warn “consumers about genetic tests that claim to predict patient’s responses to specific medications.” This statement specifically calls out tests…
Decoding FDA DTC Policy: Part 2 – What are user comprehension studies? And are pharmacogenetic test report requirements different than previous FDA regulations?
What Are User Comprehension Studies and Why are they Required by the FDA?
Unlike tests that are overseen by health care professionals where a conversation may take place about the meaning of results, direct-to-consumer tests bypass the traditional patient-doctor relationship and deliver results directly to patients (or consumers). A well-known example of a direct-to-consumer test is a pregnancy test that one may purchase at any pharmacy or similar retail store…
Decoding FDA DTC Policy: Part 1 – Pharmacogenetics Are Here!
While many of us were heading out to dish out candy (or tricks) to local goblins and superheroes this past Halloween, the FDA rounded out their suite of De Novo reclassification orders on DTC genetic testing. The latest announcement adds Personal Genome Service Pharmacogenetic Reports (PGSPR) to the existing regulations for Carrier Screening and Genetic Health Risk (GHR) tests (including a specific case of Genetic Health Risk Report for BRCA1/BRCA2)…
Republish from UNDARK: Where Scientific Mistakes Are Welcome
This is a first for the Launch Pad blog – a complete republish (with permission) of an article from another source. The article included below hit on something that I feel strongly about – enough so that just a summary would not do it justice.
Science is learning and growth in knowledge. If we got it all “right” the first time, it would be a downright boring process (and not science!). Science is about making mistakes, learning from them, and gradually (or sometimes not so gradually) improving on a shared general knowledge.
A Governmental “Source of Public Randomness”
For those who have not yet seen the article, the latest Science magazine includes an article about free to use random number generators. If you are data geek enough to understand the significance of an unpredictable, autonomous, and consistent randomness beacon – then please read on!