According to the data, there are many similar genetic testing companies in the market at present, and more than 3,000 companies provide similar services, but the testing level is mixed. According to Zhou Daixing, CEO of Berry Gene, scientific and rigorous consumer-grade genetic testing can provide important reference data for public health.
Not long ago, Bill Gates and Melinda Gates published the 20 19 open letter "Unexpectedly", which mentioned that by the beginning of 20 19, more than 26 million consumers had added their DNA to the health databases of the four major DNA business giants. But they worry that consumers' DNA, like posts or location data on social media, is governed by user agreements, and once the data is handed over, it will lose control.
The detection level is uneven.
At present, the genetic testing industry is mainly divided into three types: one is applied to the medical market, such as the Down's screening project of Huada Gene; The second is judicial expertise, such as paternity testing; The third is consumer-grade genetic testing. Under the background of consumption upgrading, the huge consumer-grade genetic testing market has attracted many enterprises.
According to the Report on Investment Analysis and Prospect Forecast of Genetic Testing Industry in China in 20 19-2023 released by CIC, as of 20 17, the cumulative number of people participating in consumer genetic testing in China has reached 300,000. With the rapid development of China's economy, the continuous improvement of people's living standards, and the continuous enhancement of consumption power and health care awareness, it is estimated that at least 3 million people in China will undergo genetic testing every year, and the trend is increasing year by year.
With the "hot" consumer gene market, many companies have made relevant layouts. According to the data of "20 18 Genetic Testing Industry Research Report", there are currently 1 13 companies providing consumer-grade genetic testing services, among which 3 1 companies are mainly engaged in consumer-grade genetic testing, most of them are start-ups, and a few companies, such as 23 Rubik's Cube Bio and WeGene, have developed rapidly. Mainstream genetic testing companies, such as Huada Gene and Berry Gene, have also extended their business to the field of consumer-grade genes.
The 265438+20th Century Business Herald found that the related contents of consumer-grade gene testing on the market at present include: ancestral analysis, genetic risk assessment, potential level such as exercise, physical characteristics such as alcohol metabolism, and medication guidelines. After the consumer pays the fee, the testing company will send the collection box to the consumer, and the consumer will collect saliva and send it back to the testing company by express delivery. The testing company will generate a testing report 4-6 weeks after receiving the sample, and consumers can log in to the testing company to check it in official website or WeChat official account.
However, an industry insider told the reporter of 265438+20th Century Business Herald that the quality of the test report is extremely dependent on the data interpretation ability of the testing company, which needs to be based on the existing academic research and the accumulation of gene databases, and there must be professionals in the corresponding fields. However, it is difficult for most startup companies, agency testing companies and secondary agency testing companies in the market to meet these conditions at the same time.
It is understood that there are still some immature projects that are over-commercialized and exaggerated. For example, the product introduction of an e-commerce platform says that they can not only test children's sports talent, music talent and dance talent, but also test their emotional intelligence, such as "leadership decision-making ability", "frustration tolerance" and "willpower".
In response to this chaotic phenomenon, Zhou Kun, the founder of 23 Rubik's Cube, pointed out in an interview with 2 1 Century Business Herald that in the past 10 years, too many businesses exaggerated their propaganda, which led to consumers' distrust of consumer-grade gene sequencing. At the same time, Zhou Kun also pointed out that there are no clear laws and regulations to regulate consumer-grade genetic testing, and relevant regulatory policies should be established in the future, which will be beneficial to the healthy development of the industry.
Zhou Daixing also believes that scientific and rigorous consumer-grade genetic testing can provide important reference data for public health. If supplemented by professional, scientific and personalized health consultation, the health level of the public can be greatly improved.
Data security and other issues have become the focus of the industry.
With the more and more extensive application of consumer genes, the security and independence of data have also attracted much attention.
20 18, 10 In June, a news that "Huada Gene 20 15 was punished by the Ministry of Science and Technology" triggered the industry's concern about the safety of genetic testing data. According to the explanation, at that time, Shenzhen Huada Gene Science and Technology Service Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Huada Gene, and Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University carried out international cooperative research on human genetic resources in China with Oxford University in the United Kingdom without permission. Without permission, the former transmits some information of human genetic resources from the Internet to overseas countries.
Huada Gene replied that Huada Science and Technology immediately stopped its research work after receiving administrative punishment No.2015, and destroyed all the genetic resources and related research data that had not left the country in the research work, and quickly promoted the rectification work at the first time, and re-standardized and comprehensively rectified the qualification requirements, cooperation processes and effect evaluation of relevant cooperation.
The founder of an Internet medical enterprise that is deploying consumer genetic testing told 2 1 Century Business Herald that every big health data collected by this industry is forbidden to be leaked. For this reason, even if there is business cooperation with foreign companies, the ownership of the data is definitely not in the other party.
The person in charge of Berry Gene also pointed out that their cooperation with Hong Kong Prenetics is more to provide business consulting and other services, Berry Gene provides professional testing technology, and the relevant data is left in China.
Coincidentally, Bill Gates recently expressed his concern about the independence of consumer-grade genetic testing data.
Bill Gates and his wife Melinda Gates mentioned in the open letter "Unexpected" published in 20 19 that in the past two decades, they found nine major accidents in the process of participating in global health and development work, and family genetic testing was gloriously ranked second in 20 18.
In "Unexpectedly", they used an event reported by Gene Valley to illustrate the important application of the database. 20 18 in may, California police, with the help of genetic detectives, discovered the golden state killer, a rapist and murderer. They used the informally managed ancestral database GEDMatch, and one million of them * * * enjoyed the test results of other companies. Investigators uploaded the DNA of the still unknown murderer (samples from the crime scene) and found his distant relatives. Since then, the bodies of more than 30 rapists, murderers and victims have been identified in the same way.
In the summer of 20 18, the four major companies all promised that the police would not be allowed to enter their databases without an arrest warrant. But genealogy DNA allows it to browse the database like other customers and find their names and relatives.
Bill Gates and his wife expressed unease about this move, thinking that it was a unilateral policy change without warning users. "This means that our DNA, like our posts or location data on social media, is governed by the user agreement, and once we hand over the data, we will lose control of it."
The above-mentioned insiders also agree with Bill Gates' concerns. He hopes that the public's private data can be secured and maintain a certain degree of independence, and he also hopes to protect it by legislation.
(Article source: 2 1 Century Business Herald)