http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/myriad-takes-over-testing-platform-from-melanoma-diagnostics/81244360/
This is almost exactly what we were talking about in class yesterday! This article talks about how Myriad can now commercialize testing for melanoma worldwide. That means that if you go to the hospital, and that hospital uses a test that was developed from Myriad's technology, you will be paying Myriad AND the hospital. Their test was developed by measuring the expression levels of several genes to differentiate from patients with harmless or dangerous growths. A blood test called Melaris is used to check for a mutation. According to the article, "Sensitivity was reportedly 95%, and specificity 91%." So, this test isn't super accurate or effective. The article also lists several more of Myriad's cancer tests, including tests for breast cancer, prostate cancer, and uterine cancer, as well as tests that measure how chemotherapy will affect you personally. The invalidity of Myriad's patent on the BRCA was also mentioned briefly.
wow i find this absolutely ridiculous. Im curious if patients know their paying both myriad and the hospital. I wonder if they alson know the test they just took that they may make a life altering decision from is not even extremely accurate. It really is a shame.
ReplyDeleteMyriad seems like a pretty unethical company. I understand the desire to increase the bottom line, but at what point are you developing cures and hurting people in the process? The money doesn't even guarantee accuracy -- it's only 91% effective.
ReplyDeleteMyriad's first priority seems to be making easy money from lawsuits, and not the quality of their product. There should be laws that require the companies to put the probability of the tests giving false positives and negatives.
ReplyDelete