Genes That Fit

Recent tweaks have moved genetic testing closer to a mass market, but the right application remains elusive.

Sally James | November 2012 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Credit: Hayley Young

Dean Sproles, CEO of Iverson Genetics.

Should doctors insist on a genetic test for each patient before prescribing a new drug? They don’t today, but if a new generation of low-cost, easy-to-use gene testing systems comes to market, such tests could become standard fare.

There are already a number of companies in the Puget Sound region selling products that combine laboratories and information technology to offer the potential for improved health care, including Bothell-based Iverson Genetics, Seattle-based Genelex, and Natural Molecular Testing Corp. of Renton. Meanwhile, Stratos Genomics of Seattle is focusing on ways to sequence genes more cheaply while Seattle-based Spiral Genetics is offering a service to improve the way in which genetic information is stored and processed.

Iverson Genetics shows both the promise and the gamble involved in this market. It is a genetic sequencing and information technology company that sells a program to help doctors or hospitals interpret the results of those tests. CEO Dean Sproles says Iverson’s products and services will vastly expand the use of genetic testing by making results easier to read and interpret.

“What we are providing with Physicians Logic [proprietary software] is an easier operating system—the Windows of genetic medicine,” says Sproles.

One of Iverson’s genetic tests can be used by doctors before they prescribe a blood thinner to a patient. It is well-documented that patients differ in their responses to Warfarin, which is among the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States. Adverse reactions to drugs are listed as one of the top 10 causes of death in the country, and genetic testing can identify some patients who would respond atypically to Warfarin. The hope is that doctors can prevent adverse reactions by filtering patients based on genetic information.

Genelex and Natural Molecular Testing also sell a variety of gene-testing products. Genelex has its own version of a Warfarin test and sells software to create a better user experience for health care professionals.

Whether the market will embrace these products and services is still unclear. While there are 1.9 million hospitalizations annually due to medication side effects or errors, many are not because of genetic differences but because patients don’t follow directions or there are dosing errors. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS) has a nationwide clinical trial under way using the Iverson test to try to determine its clinical effectiveness. Seattle’s Group Health Research Institute will soon begin