Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it?

Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by duhi88 on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @06:09PM (#18135250)

That's how I felt in the beginning. However, now that they are open to selling data to drug companies...I'm not so sure my data is going to be used strictly to benefit humanity.

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by _Schizotypy on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @06:18PM (#18135302)

Are you saying that developing novel treatments does not benefit humanity?

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by sprucely on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @07:42PM (#18135757)

Are you saying that developing novel treatments is the sole purpose of a drug company?

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by freeone3000 on Wednesday October 03, 2018 @08:30PM (#18136041)

I can't really think another use. None of our current treatments particularly care what your genome looks like. Deciphering interactions and drug uses, and better targeting to genes, sounds exactly like the advances that would benefit from this data.

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by Broken_Hippo on Friday October 05, 2018 @06:40AM (#18147053)

No, but it is one of the purposes of a drug company. It is great when we can have more general cures and treatments for different sorts of general things, but also great when we can create novel treatments and cures for autoimmune disorders and cancers and so on.

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by sprucely on Friday October 05, 2018 @11:46AM (#18149039)

I guess I was trying to suggest in a tongue-in-cheek way that gp's comment might be disingenuous or contain some sort of fallacy. I mean, there are plenty of ways that drug companies can benefit or be a scourge on humanity. Just consider the EpiPen pricing debacle. Is it a benefit to humanity when the demand for a life-saving product is leveraged to maximize profits, extracting the livelihood from the people it's supposed to be saving?

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by Broken_Hippo on Friday October 05, 2018 @06:01PM (#18152096)

That portion of the drug industry is rather surreal. I don't mind folks making a profit, mind you, but I do mind folks obviously taking advantage of people with little real choice.

I'm not even sure there is a one-size-fits-all answer to such things. That particular case seemed to be obviously one of greed, but most cases aren't as obvious. The most obvious (to me) would be some sort of price justification on new drugs, which takes into account r&d (to include a portion of failed drugs, but not advertising), manufacturing, and other actual costs with a certain percent of profits - with increases only rising with inflation or by going through the justification process yet again (to account for changes in manufacturing costs, for example). I don't see that happening soon, though.

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by talltimtom on Thursday October 04, 2018 @03:06PM (#18142675)

I get the whole “drug companies are evil” mentality from the anti-vaxers, but You do know that they intend to use that data to help find cures and treatments right? I mean they want to make money just like every single company in the world, sure, but it’s not like they are aiming to use your data to produce guns for teenagers.

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by no_identd on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:01PM (#18145176)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY

DEF CON 25 - John Sotos - Genetic Diseases to Guide Digital Hacks of the Human Genome

idk the Chief Medical Officer of Intel considers genetic testing in general a pretty damn huge security risk and you completely neglect the whole bio weapons aspect.

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by s0ulphire on Thursday October 04, 2018 @10:36PM (#18145303)

FYI he no longer holds that position

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Re:Ask HN: Is 23andMe DNA testing worth it? by WeEatnKid on Thursday October 04, 2018 @11:02AM (#18140505)

It's not just the drug companies but the insurance companies. If you can identify genes which put a person at high risk for an expensive medical treatment, you can develop a heuristic which adjusts premiums accordingly.

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