Pioneer company in genetic cancer testing criticizes rivals with claims of inaccuracies

GeneticTestCompetition Illustration MollyFerguson x e

No company has had a more profound impact on inherited breast and ovarian cancer than Myriad Genetics. Its DNA test to identify women with a sharply increased chance of developing these cancers changed millions of lives: Many women who learned they had a cancer-causing mutation had their breasts and ovaries removed in an effort to dodge the genetic bullet.

The pioneering genetic test, introduced in 1996, was also good for Myriad, which won a patent on the “BRCA” cancer genes and has collected more than $2 billion from its BRCA tests. But its fortunes changed in 2013, when the US Supreme Court invalidated the company’s key patents and Myriad lost its monopoly on BRCA testing. Other labs began offering the tests for as little as a few hundred dollars, a small fraction of Myriad’s $4,000.

More recently, Myriad went further, reaching out to reporters at major national publications to paint its competitors’ BRCA tests as a “public health crisis,” as spokesman Ron Rogers told STAT last month.

Although Myriad still has about 85 percent of the US market for BRCA testing, a dozen or so companies now offer the tests and, Rogers said, they “are coming up short, providing doctors and patients with what we believe are inaccurate results.” He added, “We don’t know how many patients are being affected, but we believe it’s probably in the hundreds or thousands.”

The company’s assertions about its competitors themselves come up short, however. Scientists whose work Myriad cited as supporting its contentions said it did not. Some genetic counselors agreed that Myriad’s BRCA test is superior, but others did not. And competitors pushed back strongly against Myriad’s claims that their tests often produced disastrously incorrect results, as did experts not connected to any company.

The GLP aggregated and excerpted this blog/article to reflect the diversity of news, opinion, and analysis. Read full, original post: As revenue falls, a pioneer of cancer gene testing slams rivals with overblown claims

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