The Next Social Media Revolution Will Occur In…Personalized Medicine?
Social media – including Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms – are widely credited with fundamentally altering the nature of political discourse and, in some instances, credited as catalysts of political revolution. But social media’s ability to affect change need not be limited to politics, as recent developments in the arena of personalized medicine and consumer genomics continue to demonstrate.
Social Media as a Research Tool. Last month, PatientsLikeMe, an online patient community, made headlines with a study published in Nature Biotechnology in which the company analyzed self-reported data from nearly 600 patients to demonstrate that the use of lithium had no effect on the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease).
The study’s findings are valuable for ALS patients, who frequently experiment with unproven treatments in an attempt to slow progression of the degenerative disease for which there is not yet an effective therapy. But the long-term impact of the study’s methodological approach, which suggests “that data reported by patients over the internet may be useful for accelerating clinical discovery and evaluating the effectiveness of drugs already in use,” should be felt far beyond the ALS community.
Update: FDA Taking Another (Public) Look at DTC Genetic Tests
Direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests are back on the FDA’s public radar screen. A month from today, the agency’s Molecular and Clinical Genetics Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee will meet to “discuss and make recommendations on scientific issues concerning [DTC] genetic tests that make medical claims.” Here is the Federal Register notice (pdf).
The two-day meeting, which is open to the public, will investigate the following topics:
- The risks and benefits of making clinical genetic tests available for “direct access by a consumer without the involvement of a clinician (i.e., without a prescription).”
- The different types of DTC or direct access tests (e.g., carrier screening, risk prediction in healthy persons, pharmacogenetics, etc.) that might “support differences in the regulatory approach.”
- The “level and type of scientific evidence appropriate for supporting [DTC] claims, including whether it should be different than” what is required for similar clinical genetic tests (presumably, non-DTC in vitro tests, including laboratory developed tests, or LDTs).
A complete agenda and list of speakers has yet to be published, but the fact that the FDA is singling out DTC genetic tests for specific attention is sure to be a welcome sign to many.
Biotech Patents under Attack from Two More Angles
Two developments this month have underscored the breadth of dissatisfaction with the current state of biotechnology patenting, even as the court weighs a summary judgment motion in the pending ACLU-sponsored litigation against Myriad Genetics’ breast cancer gene patents. First, on October 2, 2009, the American Medical Association and four other medical organizations interested in genetic medicine filed an amicus brief in Bilski v. Kappos, which is now before the Supreme Court. In a decision in Bilski late last year, the Federal Circuit rejected a patent on a method of hedging in a commodities market because it was a nontransformative process consisting solely of mental steps. The Federal Circuit promulgated what has come to be known as the machine-or-transformation test, which limits patentable subject matter to processes that are either tied to a particular machine or transform the state of matter. The test has been attacked by various biotechnology and pharmaceutical interests because of its perceived limiting effect on patenting diagnostic techniques and tests.
Why the Errors of the Human Provenance Project Will Echo Beyond the U.K.’s Borders
ScienceInsider has posted several pieces this morning describing and critiquing the U.K. Border Agency’s Human Provenance pilot project:
Scientists are greeting with surprise and dismay a project to use DNA and isotope analysis of tissue from asylum seekers to evaluate their nationality and help decide who can enter the United Kingdom. “Horrifying,” “naïve,” and “flawed” are among the adjectives geneticists and isotope specialists have used to describe the “Human Provenance pilot project,” launched quietly in mid-September by the U.K. Border Agency. Their consensus: The project is not scientifically valid—or even sensible.
In addition to the feature article, ScienceInsider has also published a FAQ describing what is now known about the program as well as links to the underlying documents and expanded reactions from leading geneticists and isotope specialists.
The project is, as the name indicates, a pilot project, and one spokesperson described it as being “in its baby stages.” Still, as reported by ScienceInsider, the scientific community’s reaction to the program appears to be swift, unanimous and extraordinarily critical. Daniel MacArthur of Genetic Future has a slightly more measured take, expressing skepticism about the ability of the government agency to identify precisely an individual’s geographic ancestry based on genomic data and rightly pointing out that the “crucial issue is that it must be shown that the data are used in appropriate ways, and not given undue weight in making serious decisions about a person’s future.” That’s an issue that cannot be resolved until the Border Agency provides additional details on both its scientific methods and its utilization of the collected DNA and isotope data.
The near-uniform scientific skepticism that has greeted the announcement of the Human Provenance project suggests that we should not be surprised to see the pilot project substantially revised, or even scrapped altogether. But has damage already been done?
