Olympic athletes are giving up their personal physical data in exchange for the latest gadgets that record sleep, diet and exercise patterns as they try to boost their performance in this year’s games.
Several health technology companies plan to use the athletes’ data to help re-engineer the tracking devices and later reposition the products for the amateur sports performance market or the $61bn weight loss market.
The company believes the One for One program to be rare in health care. “We thought a lot about it and we talked to a lot of global patient advocacy organizations and we thought… for every test that was ordered, we can donate a test to someone in need,” Ardy Arianpour, Chief Strategy Officer for Pathway Genomics told Bio-IT World.
Inputting genomic data into electronic health records is a goal for many electronic medical record providers, as personalized medicine advances allowing physicians to tailor-fit drugs based on a patient’s genes. By examining DNA from a person’s saliva, or in some cases blood, Pathway Genomics screens specific genes and provides information that relates to genetic disease, traits that impact heart health, possible drug response, nutrition and exercise response, as well as common health conditions.
Jolie took the test because there is a history of cancer in her family. Jolie’s test was provided by Myriad Genetics, a Salt Lake City biotech which held a legal monopoly on the BRCA test until the Supreme Court ruling. That ruling said gene sequences existing in nature cannot be patented. It opened the way to competitors, now including San Diego’s Pathway Genomics.
Instead of a challenge, Arianpour sees the coming swell of samples as a boon to research for Pathway and the breast cancer community as a whole. “We’re going to get some amazing data,” he says. The wealth of data will be crucial for research and will help in “getting the lowest VUS [variants of unknown significance] rates.”
The test, called the BRCA True, detects the presence of a gene mutation found among families that have multiple cases of the disease. A Salt Lake City-based company called Myriad Genetics Inc. held a patent on tests for the genes, called BRCA1 and BRCA2, stymieing other companies from developing tests for these genes.
San Diego’s Pathway Genomics Corp . is employing a social entrepreneurship model as it launches its new genetic test for breast cancer — entering a market made more high profile and competitive after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year that invalidated patents on genes.
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Pathway Genomics this week launched a next-generation sequencing test for gauging alterations in BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes, called BRCA True, and a patient assistance program through which it is offering free testing to women in need.
In its latest move to expand its direct-to-physician genetic testing services, Pathway Genomics inked a partnership with Practice Fusion, a company that markets free online EMR software to help doctors keep track of information about their patients, including medical charts, e-prescriptions, lab test results, and referrals.
Pathway Genomics announced today the launch of BRCA True, a next-generation sequencing test that looks for mutations in BRCA1 and BRCA2, genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer. Along with the new test, the company also announced an accompanying One for One program to help people in need. Similar to the One for One program TOMS Shoes offers, in which the company donates a pair of shoes for every pair purchased, Pathway’s program will donate one BRCA True test for every test ordered.
