Stakeholders in Consumer Genomics, Read This

Noting a flurry of recent commentaries in peer-review journals, our February Science Matters column in START-UP (link here, free access) discussed how the personal genomics company 23andMe has accelerated the consumer genomics debate through its dust-up with FDA over the lack of evidence and documentation supporting its Personal Genome Service, which FDA warned falls under its definition of a medical device.

The commentaries, in Nature, NEJM, and JAMA are a reminder that genomics is rapidly becoming incorporated not only into the clinic, but into everyday life. It is forcing FDA and other agencies to take a stand on critical technical, legal, and ethical issues, which will influence the strategies of medical diagnostics and pharmaceutical companies as well as labs performing tests directly for the consumer. As we wrote, those regulatory decisions should be made with the awareness that at some point, barriers to consumer access to these data will come down.

In researching the column, we were directed towards a draft report by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, “Consuming Genomics: Regulating Direct-to-Consumer Genetic and Genomic Information.” Its authors call the 86-page document “one of the first to analyze the effect of the 23andMe Warning Letter on the industry, to focus on the bifurcation of genetic interpretation and information as an independent medical device, and to analyze future regulatory approaches available to FDA.” Forthcoming in the Nebraska Law Review, a draft is available here.

The report provides a clear, detailed, up-to-the-moment summary of the the regulatory, ethical, and legal issues around DTC genetic testing. It also lays out what FDA considers a laboratory-developed test, what it considers a clinical device for commercialization, what it considers a research exemption, and why. It's a great read for those of us trying to keep straight FDA's thinking on LDTs, its jurisdiction, and the possible dividing lines between regulated and unregulated products, as well as the history of the consumer genomics field. -- Mark Ratner

Note: This post originally stated that the report is from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. The authors, Kayte Spector-Bagdady and Elizabeth Pike, work for the Commission. However, the report was written in their personal capacities.