Friday, March 11, 2011

Did the FDA Lie to Congress about Genetic Testing?

Wired asks, "Did The FDA's Jeffrey Shuren Mislead A Congressional Hearing?"
A video posted yesterday on FDABlog appears to show Jeffrey Shuren, Director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, providing misleading information to a 2010 Congressional hearing into the direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing industry.

The timing of the video's release is no coincidence: we currently sit in the middle of yet another FDA-engineered spectacle on DTC genomics, which seems likely to generate a recommendation that all health-related genetic tests be offered only through a clinician gate-keeper, so the integrity of the FDA's approach to the industry is an important question.
More details here at FDAblog.org.

The FDA becoming more aggressive in its attempts to obstruct the consumer genetic testing industry. But if these accusations are true, this is a new low for them.

(I covered some of this in my 2010 PajamasMedia piece, "Should You Be Allowed To Know What's In Your DNA?")