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It has been almost two years since the FDA ordered online genetic testing firm 23andMe to stop offering its health screening service. At present, the visitor has jumped through all the necessary regulatory hoops to brainstorm offer health data once again. However, the service will be much more narrow in focus than what it was offering previously.

23andMe offers genetic testing kits for $199 (sometimes less when it's on sale), and they've been available this whole fourth dimension. The company has always offered ancestry analysis (e.g. where in the world your genes might come from) in improver to wellness screening, and that role of the service was unaffected past the FDA action. Prior to the FDA-mandated end of disease reporting, 23andMe would show users the estimated likelihood they would develop a certain illness — specifically, how their adventure compared to the general population.

The way 23andMe did health screening was certainly neat, and information technology attracted new users with the promise of mountains of data. Nonetheless, as the FDA pointed out, it was often based on very express or preliminary data. It'southward non really feasible to assign a percent chance of something happening based on genes. That's why the new 23andMe will do health analysis differently.

You'll withal become a sample drove kit in the mail to begin the process. There's no blood to be drawn — but spit in the little plastic tube and ship it off. You'll still get all the ancestry data, but the health evaluations will now be limited to detection of disease carrier status. You're a carrier of a disease if you have one copy of a mutated gene for a recessive disease. If you were to have a child with someone who too had that recessive gene, there'due south a 25% chance the offspring will accept the affliction, a l% chance they will be a carrier too, and a 25% chance they won't have a copy of the mutated cistron at all.

23andme

23andMe will be able to report carrier condition for 36 serious diseases including cystic fibrosis, sickle jail cell disease, and Tay-Sachs. This is the same bones service that genetic counselors have been offering for some time, simply for much more than $199. 23andMe volition add new data to user reports every bit it gets approval from the FDA to offering more tests.

And so, 23andMe has demonstrated to the FDA that its procedures for the more than limited testing are accurate, but it'southward unclear if people will be excited in the same way they were about the personal adventure assessment. When it stopped offering health screening before, new sign-ups dropped by one-half. The company still hopes to gain approval to offer some health risk data like information technology was before, merely that'southward going to exist a much harder sell at the FDA.