At-home health testing company LetsGetChecked has acquired the genetic testing company Veritas Genetics and spinoff Veritas Intercontinental, it announced [March 29]. It’s the latest pivot for a direct-to-consumer genetics company, most of which have spent the past few years struggling to sell DNA test kits to consumers more and more concerned about genetic privacy.
Veritas, founded in 2014 by geneticist George Church, had early plans to offer cheap full genome sequencing to consumers, eventually getting the cost down to $599…. Veritas suspended operating in the United States in 2019 after struggling to find investors and started looking for buyers to bring it back.
Other genetics companies had similar problems. 23andMe laid off 100 employees in early 2020, and sales for both 23andMe and Ancestry were down in 2019.
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Offering diagnostic testing after genetic testing could be a helpful tool, says Katherine Wasson, a bioethicist studying direct-to-consumer genome testing at Loyola University Chicago. “You could say that it’s providing more of a continuous service,” she says.
But it could also be a potential conflict of interest. “The vast majority of the genome is like a weather report,” Mathews says. Just like a weather report might tell someone it could start raining in their area, it’s not a guarantee it actually will.
