Great op-ed by Professor David B. Agus of the University of Southern California in the The New York Times:
Unlike routine tests for diabetes or high cholesterol, however, the BRCA gene evaluation — performed by only one company in the United States, Myriad Genetics — is phenomenally expensive, with a “list price” close to $4,000 when a related genomic-rearrangement test is included in the analysis, which oncologists typically recommend.
The question is why? Today, molecular scientists like me can sequence all of an individual’s genes — at least 20,000 of them — for about $1,000. About five cents per gene.
One company, 23andMe, charges people $99 to see if they have gene variants that put them at higher risk for 120 diseases and whether they carry a known heritable mutation in an additional 50, including cystic fibrosis, sickle cell disease and Tay-Sachs disease. (I helped found one of that company’s competitors, Navigenics, which is now owned by Life Technologies. While I have no equity stake in these companies, I am paid a consulting fee by Life Technologies.)
The Outrageous Cost of a Gene Test
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