California Watch

Flickr photo by Horia Varlan

Genetic-testing services that can be administered at home and sent off to a lab misinformed their customers, promising "DNA-based disease predictions" and more, according a government employee's testimony to a Congressional subcommittee Thursday.

The testing services – three of which have California offices – were found giving "test results that are misleading and of little or no practical use" to fictitious profiles that the U.S. government accountability office created, Gregory Kutz of the GAO testified Thursday.

The GAO purchased 10 tests from four companies each, sending them DNA samples from the same person twice – one that was a factual representation of the DNA donor and another that used fictitious information like a different age or ethnicity. The GAO found that the same genetic material can yield different test results depending upon the company that tested it.

Four out of five DNA donors' results did not match their real-life health conditions and family histories, according to Kutz's written testimony. No company could give the fictitious African-American and Asian DNA donors complete results, a limitation that companies placed in "lengthy consent forms" or did not share before the $299 to $999 tests were purchased, according to the testimony.

More examples of deceptive marketing that the GAO found are shown in the video below, including one example where companies claimed "their supplements could 'repair damaged DNA' or cure disease, even though experts confirmed there is no scientific basis for such claims."

Although the experts GAO spoke with believe that these tests show promise for the future, they agreed that consumers should not rely on any of the results at this time. As one expert said, 'the fact that different companies, using the same samples, predict different directions of risk is telling and is important. It shows that we are nowhere near really being able to interpret (such tests).'

23andMe Inc., a genetic-testing company with a Mountain View office that had a representative testify Thursday, was the only company to respond to requests for comment Tuesday.

Ashley Gould, general counsel of 23andMe, wrote in an e-mail that 23andMe believes the GAO's report is "flawed," but that the company is "aware of the confusion surrounding the inconsistencies for a small number of disease-risk reports among companies and have already taken steps to work toward solutions."

The GAO reported issues with Navigenics and Pathway representatives, and not with 23andMe. We believe our customer service team does a fantastic job and we don't feel any changes in practices or training are needed as a result of the recent hearings or report. 23andMe is committed to high-quality customer service and to transparency in our delivery of information to our consumers, and grounded in those principles updates our internal procedures as new information becomes available

Pathway Genomics, a San Diego-based genetic-testing company, and Navigenics, a Foster City, Calif. genetic-testing company, also testified on Thursday. The GAO purchased tests from those who testified and deCODE Genetics.

Hat tip to MedPage Today for reporting out the story.

Here's a YouTube video from the Committee on Energy and Commerce's website. The video has text and audio of "undercover contact with direct-to-consumer genetic-testing companies."