Ethics

DTC APOE4 testing suspended (Reiner)

By Peter Reiner

According to a news item in Nature,  Smart Genetics has apparently stopped providing DTC tests for APOE4, a SNP associated with increased risk of Alzheimer's disease.  The issue is based on the specifics of the license: Smart Genetics sublicensed the rights from Athena Diagnostics who originally licensed the rights from Duke University and Alan Roses, who discovered the linkage in the early 1990's.  What is particularly interesting from the neuroethics point of view is the specifics of the dispute.  From the Nature news item:

Roses and Duke argue that Athena's licence covers APOE testing only in people who already have symptoms of dementia.

"The test was never intended to be used for wholesale screening of non-cognitively impaired individuals," adds Alan Herosian, director of corporate alliances for Duke University. He says he has contacted Athena many times in recent months to press this point.

Roses and Duke are to be applauded in enforcing this point, as their are substantial ethical implications of knowing about increased risk for developing AD in the absence of any meaningful treatment.

Full post as published by Neuroethics and Law on October 29, 2008 (boomark / email).