Will Allow 23andMe to Sell Genetic Tests for Disease Risk to Consumers -<br />By GINA KOLATAAPRIL 6, 2017<br />For the first time, the Food and Drug Administration said it would allow a company to sell genetic tests for disease risk directly to consumers, providing people with information about the likelihood<br />that they could develop various conditions, including Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.<br />allowed the company to tell customers if they had a copy of a mutated gene for a disease like cystic fibrosis<br />that would not affect them — you need two copies of such mutated genes to get the disease — but could affect their future children.<br />Until now, the only way for people to get such genetic tests was to see a medical<br />professional who would order a test and later deliver the results to patients.<br />If a person with one copy of a cystic fibrosis gene, for example, has children with a partner who also has one<br />copy of the mutated gene, each child has one chance in four of inheriting a mutated gene fromeach parent.<br />People often need genetic counseling before deciding they want to know if they are at risk for<br />Parkinson’s disease, said James Beck, chief scientific officer of the Parkinson’s Foundation.<br />This is not the first foray by 23andMe into direct-to-consumer disease risk testing; several years ago it marketed tests<br />to consumers claiming it could provide genetic information for a variety of diseases from a simple saliva sample.
