Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Tests Should Come With a Health Warning
By Jessica Cussins,
The Pharmaceutical Journal
| 01. 15. 2015
In late 2014, the Google-backed company 23andMe announced that it would start selling its direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic test in Canada and the UK — despite being banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from selling it in the United States following misleading marketing.
The genetic test provides information for around 108 health conditions for which some degree of evidence exists, including 44 inherited conditions, 12 drug responses, 12 genetic risk factors and 41 traits. Some conditions on the list are both obvious and innocuous. For example, hair colour, eye colour, and height are among the 41 traits. But many of the results are about important health conditions, and are clearly supposed to incite a change in behaviour.
Genetic testing is appropriate — and can be life saving — when doctors and genetic counsellors interpret complex results and map out the various courses of action. However, DTC genetic testing companies, such as 23andME, deliberately eschew the framework between clinician and patient. Under the banner of personal empowerment, DTC companies proclaim that their products confer a new level of control over one’s health, and that...
Related Articles
Cathy Tie seems to be good at starting businesses but not so dedicated to maintaining them. CGS, like many others, first heard of her thanks to Caiwei Chen and Antonio Regalado in MIT Technology Review, May 2025, as the partner (perhaps bride) of the notorious Chinese scientist He Jiankui, described in the headline as “China’s Frankenstein.” He prefers “Chinese Darwin.” She ran his Twitter account for a while, contributing such gems as:
Get in luddite, we’re going gene editing...
By Laura DeFrancesco, Nature Biotechnology | 03.17.2026
The first gene editors designed to fix genetic lesions in mutation-agnostic ways are poised to enter the clinic. Tessera Therapeutics and Alltrna, two Flagship Pioneering-funded companies, are gearing up to test novel genetic medicines in humans. Tessera received regulatory clearance...
By Carolyn Riley Chapman and Nirvan Bhatia, Hastings Bioethics Forum | 03.12.2026
Last year, researchers saved an infant named KJ from a life-threatening rare metabolic disorder using a customized gene editing therapy. This was the first time that an individualized gene therapy was used to treat a human patient, and it has...
By Alexandra Marquez, NBC News | 03.13.2026
“Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
President Donald Trump on Thursday blamed “the genetics” of assailants in a string of recent attacks across the country. He made the comments after attacks at a...
