Of Drugstores and Devices: Parsing the FDA’s Evolving DTC “Policy”
Andrew Pollack of The New York Times reports that, in an interview, OIVD Director Alberto Gutierrez indicated that the saliva collection kit Pathway had planned to sell through Walgreens may be a clearer case of a DTC genetic test subject to FDA oversight. According to Director Gutierrez, “Once you take a collection device and you are marketing through a drugstore, it is very easy for me to say whether something would fall under our policy.”
FDA Puts the Brakes on Pathway-Walgreens Pairing; What’s Next for DTC?
Well that was quick. On Tuesday, Pathway Genomics and Walgreens announced a partnership to sell a saliva collection kit for Pathway Genomics’ direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests in Walgreens’ thousands of drugstores nationwide. Less than forty-eight hours later, after the FDA repeatedly voiced its concerns about the arrangement, Walgreens has hit the brakes.
According to an MSNBC story, the FDA sent a letter to Pathway “asking the test maker to show it has regulatory approval, or prove why [the test] should be sold without the agency’s blessing.” In response, Walgreens is “elect[ing] not to move forward with offering the Pathway product to our customers until we have further clarity on this matter.”
Back to the Drawing Board. Despite its obvious significance, it is hard to be surprised by this latest development. When the Director of the FDA’s Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Device Evaluation and Safety (OIVD) tells The Washington Post that you would be selling an “illegally marketed device” if you proceed as intended, you should know the letter is already in the mail and retreat to the drawing board as quickly as possible.
More on Pathway and Walgreens: The Price of Visibility and Adding the FTC to the Regulatory Mix
Yesterday, direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic test provider Pathway Genomics and drugstore giant Walgreens announced a partnership that will place Pathway’s tests on the shelves of thousands of Walgreens stores across the country. Earlier coverage from the GLR reviewed the announcement in detail, and examined whether the Pathway/Walgreens partnership might prove to be the catalyst for increased FDA regulation of DTC genetic tests.
Introducing the FDA to Pathway, but not to genetic testing. Continuing national media coverage has focused on comments from the FDA that the agency was unaware of Pathway’s genetic test and that it has opened an investigation into its legality. Yesterday, Office of In Vitro Diagnostic Device Evaluation and Safety (OIVD) Director Alberto Gutierrez told The Washington Post that he thought Pathway’s genetic test “would be an illegally marketed device” if the company proceeded with the announced Walgreens partnership. Gutierrez was also widely quoted as saying that the FDA was not aware of the test previously and that the agency was “in the process of investigating the test.”
