I just received this from my friend Missy, and I think it's worth sharing!
Many of you know that Sequenom had been developing a new test that they claimed could diagnose a first-trimester unborn baby with Down syndrome with up to 95% accuracy. It was a blood test, so it surely would be used often by women, and the likelihood that abortion rates for babies with DS would increase was a very real concern. The news came out today that the test release is delayed due to “the discovery by company officials of employee mishandling of R&D test data and results.”
I don't know what that means exactly, but I know that I'm pleased. Prenatal testing is a hot issue, and I'm not trying to debate that at this point. Just sharing the latest info on something that many of us have been watching.
Here's Patricia Bauer's article.
Many of you know that Sequenom had been developing a new test that they claimed could diagnose a first-trimester unborn baby with Down syndrome with up to 95% accuracy. It was a blood test, so it surely would be used often by women, and the likelihood that abortion rates for babies with DS would increase was a very real concern. The news came out today that the test release is delayed due to “the discovery by company officials of employee mishandling of R&D test data and results.”
I don't know what that means exactly, but I know that I'm pleased. Prenatal testing is a hot issue, and I'm not trying to debate that at this point. Just sharing the latest info on something that many of us have been watching.
Here's Patricia Bauer's article.
I'm with you! Hopefully it will be delayed...FOREVER!
ReplyDeleteHaving worked in R&D (not for anything like this), what it means is that either an employee falsified data (so that 95% accuracy can be a crap statistic) or paperwork was mishandled. In R&D, it's so important for every piece of data to be traceable via paperwork. If Sequenom was ever sued, by a parent or a competitor, and the paperwork was mishandled or missing, they would pretty much lose their suit.
ReplyDeleteThey are covering their behinds on this.