23andMe Now Facing Lawsuit

Shortly after getting in trouble with the Food and Drug Administration, the personal genetic testing company is slapped with a class action lawsuit.

kerry grens
| 1 min read

Register for free to listen to this article
Listen with Speechify
0:00
1:00
Share

WIKIMEDIA, SAM HOWZITLisa Casey, a San Diego resident and subscriber to 23andMe’s Personal Genome Service, complains in a lawsuit filed last week (November 27) that the company misled her about its product. Casey's beef with 23andMe is similar to that of the US Food and Drug Administration's. Earlier in November the agency told 23andMe to stop marketing its Personal Genome Service (PGS) because its determinations about health risks and disease carrier status are not clinically validated.

According to the lawsuit, Casey purchased the $99 genetic test in September 2013 and received an e-mail with her results on November 19. She bought the test after seeing advertisements from 23andMe that consumers could learn about their health risks and ancestry. “In fact,” the case states, “the PGS does none of those things and the results it provides are not supported by any scientific evidence.” The suit goes on to claim that Casey has suffered injury, in addition to losing money, as a result of 23andMe’s “false and misleading representations.”

It’s not clear what the injuries were that Casey suffered. The FDA has voiced its concerns that consumers might take drastic steps—such as prophylactic breast removal—based on erroneous results of the PGS. Although people ...

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of

The Scientist Logo
Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!
Already a member? Login Here

Keywords

Meet the Author

  • kerry grens

    Kerry Grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

Share
3D illustration of a gold lipid nanoparticle with pink nucleic acid inside of it. Purple and teal spikes stick out from the lipid bilayer representing polyethylene glycol.
February 2025, Issue 1

A Nanoparticle Delivery System for Gene Therapy

A reimagined lipid vehicle for nucleic acids could overcome the limitations of current vectors.

View this Issue
Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

Enhancing Therapeutic Antibody Discovery with Cross-Platform Workflows

sartorius logo
Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Considerations for Cell-Based Assays in Immuno-Oncology Research

Lonza
An illustration of animal and tree silhouettes.

From Water Bears to Grizzly Bears: Unusual Animal Models

Taconic Biosciences
Sex Differences in Neurological Research

Sex Differences in Neurological Research

bit.bio logo

Products

Photo of a researcher overseeing large scale production processes in a laboratory.

Scaling Lentiviral Vector Manufacturing for Optimal Productivity

Thermo Fisher Logo
An illustration of an mRNA molecule in front of a multicolored background.

Generating High-Quality mRNA for In Vivo Delivery with lipid nanoparticles

Thermo Fisher Logo
Tecan Logo

Tecan introduces Veya: bringing digital, scalable automation to labs worldwide

Explore a Concise Guide to Optimizing Viral Transduction

A Visual Guide to Lentiviral Gene Delivery

Takara Bio