23andMe is moving quickly into the field of drug development, and its first push is a predictable and seemingly natural step for the company – clinical trial recruitment.
23andMe partners with TrialSpark.
Based on all of the information us common folk paid to hand right on over to the DNA testing company, 23andMe is partnering with TrialSpark, a more tech-savvy version of a contract research organization, to recommend customers for clinical trials based on those customers’ DNA, demographic or other characteristics.
- These DNA testing firms are now sitting on a ton of probably-valuable genetic testing data, and they’re not going to sit idly with that (potentially sensitive) information.
The more specialized data matching processes might actually be really helpful to drug makers and research teams as they work on developing drugs for tricky diseases.
Remote Access.
Here’s the revolutionary part. As Stat notes in its story, 23andMe and TrialSpark might actually solve what has traditionally been a huge barrier for clinical trials – geography.
Instead of needing all of the patients for a trial in one location, the partnership is trying to digitize clinical trials. That might mean that patients could walk into their local doctor’s office to report data rather than flying to another facility.
This could be a huge, promising push for drug development. All stemming from some silly consumer DNA ancestry testing!
Subscribe for more.