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Last week, it was announced that the Google-associated home DNA screening kit, 23andMe will be launched in the UK. In the US, however, 23andMe remains unavailable – a Food and Drug Administration order issued in November 2013 instructed the company to desist from marketing their eponymous genomics kit in the US. We investigate the issue.
23andMe began in 2006, when biologist Anne Wojcicki moved to California's Silicon Valley to be with her then-boyfriend, Sergey Brin. Wojcicki was and remains a passionate critic of the US health care system. In particular, she was disillusioned with how the health industry – currently worth more than $3 trillion – has what she considers to be a profit incentive in illness.
"Obesity is awesome from a Wall Street perspective," Wojcicki explained to UK newspaper The Guardian. "It's not just one disease – there are all sorts of related diseases to profit from."
From that perspective, the predicted rise in obesity-related diabetes to 10% of the global population by 2030 represents excellent business growth in an industry where treatment makes more money...