Genomics

Genomics is a fledgling industry – its barely four years old. It is also an industry with a lot of potential. By analysing customers’ genes, those in the field can predict (with increasing accuracy) the likelihood that the customer will suffer from a disease in the future. Clearly such ability has the power to change the medical world – people will be more informed as to what medication to take (as they will know the side-effects they are likely to get from various different treatments), and high-risk customers will be able to mitigate their health risks by taking preventative medicine and adopting healthier habits.

Though currently only those with plenty of cash are capable of sequencing their entire genome, prices are falling fast. A decade ago whole-genome sequencing cost a billion dollars (Source: The Economist). In 2007, genome-sequencing firm Knome charged $350,000 to sequence a genome; today, they charge $40,000 and by 2015, that figure may well be down to $1000.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said that with great power comes great responsibility. The same is true with genomics – governments have the responsibility to regulate the industry so that consumers aren’t taken advantage of in this particularly technical field. Indeed, a report by America’s Government Accountability Office (GAO), a watchdog, found that much of the information given to consumers who had their genes analysed was ‘misleading and of little or no practical use to consumers’. Some firms currently claim to be able to know what sports kids will be good at from their genes alone – a claim that the GAO called ‘complete garbage’.

Because consumers are so vulnerable to false information in this industry, the regulation of tests for things like the probability of contracting an illness and the probability of suffering side effects from drugs is highly likely. More frivolous tests like ancestry checks look set to be left unregulated. This is wise as the whole point of this new technology is to make consumers better informed, not to give doctors another chance to swindle money from their patients. I would go as far as to suggest that consumers should be prohibited from getting medication or receiving treatment from the same institution that sequenced their genome. That way, the firm that actually sequences the genome doesn’t benefit from the sales of drugs and treatments that take place as a result of the genome analysis. Because of this, the sequencing firm will have no incentive to give wrong or misleading information to the consumer. Through regulation and the industry structure I’ve outlined above, the true potential of genome sequencing can be harnessed.