Anne Wojcicki is the first to admit that she has tunnel vision. The battle-weary CEO of 23andMe knows exactly where her company needs to be in the next five years.
“I will not sleep until the primary content is back on our site,” says Wojcicki at the Future of Genomics Conference in San Diego. I spoke with Wojcicki shortly after she addressed a roomful of doctors and geneticists. She immediately got comfortable, curling up on the couch and digging into a protein bar.
At medical conferences like this one, Wojcicki is often held up as the poster child for how challenging it is to innovate in health care. She doesn’t resist this label, and speaks frankly about her mistakes. But she remains confident about the future, both of 23andMe and the nascent field of direct-to-consumer genetics. “We want to show that there is a path forward, both for us and for others,” she says.
In November of 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration publicly ordered 23andMe to cease sales and marketing of its test. Regulators feared that consumers would misinterpret the test results and press for unnecessary procedures. 23andMe had offered “health reports on 254 diseases and conditions,” including diabetes and cancer, in exchange for a spit sample.
In the aftermath of the crackdown, Wojckci faced immense pressure to pivot away from the direct-to-consumer model. Most test makers evade the watchful gaze of federal regulators by requiring a doctor’s prescription. But Wojcicki advocates for consumers to have direct access to their health information. “If you pay for the test, you will be more proactive about your health,” she says.
But medical experts are far from convinced. At one point during her panel, a member of the audience accused Wojcicki of wasting valuable time and resources. Some doctors believe that consumers aren’t equipped to handle this kind of information; others believe that this information isn’t particularly useful yet.
In October of 2015, 23andMe relaunched its service (for $199, about double the price of the previous test) with some–but not all–health reports, as well as ancestral and genealogical information. Those who opt for a test are also asked to participate in research, which might require that they fill out online health questionnaires and surveys.
