Hacker News Reader

Comment by RoryH | Hacker News Reader

Brin's partner co-founded https://www.23andme.com/ and that got it's nose cut off by the FDA IIRC.

Rightly so. If I recall correctly, instead of just providing the results to you they also included recommendations to try to prevent things their tests had shown you were at risk of. Their tests have never been vetted/proven accurate by anyone other than themselves so providing health advice based on them is reckless. If they were allowed to continue anyone could start their own 'DNA testing service' create bogus reports and bogus recommendations and people could get hurt.

... which is not nearly as big a risk these days as it was in the days of snake-oil salesmen; there isn't a "new town to set up shop in" for a bad DNA testing service in the days of the Internet.

I'm in favor of protecting people from bad medcine, but I think the current regulatory structure is an overly-restrictive tool for the job. Either that, or (given that it steps on the neck of 23andme but lets GNC and homeopathic practitioners continue to operate) it's mis-tuned for modern technologies and tools.

So what? I want to see my results. They make it clear it's not an exact science and they link to the relevant studies so you can make your own decisions. Why should the FDA prevent them from sharing that information with me? I'm not even American!

Did you read my comment? It wasn't about the results. You want your results - you got them. It was that they were providing recommendations based on the results which haven't been verified as accurate by anyone but 23andme.

AFAIK they're not showing health results at all anymore because of the FDA decision.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com