23andMe advertising nationally in the US (sign of the times)

23andMe, the US personal genetics company, launched Portraits of  Health, the company’s first (US) television advertising campaign on 5th August.

Anyone unaware of the company and its ambitions could do worse than watch the excellent video of Anne Wojcicki’s presentation at a recent RSM innovations summit.

Whilst the NHS talks about building a 100,000 person genomic database, and the RCGP sees the most advanced medical development in the life of the average GP by 2022 will be remote delivery of test results, it seems that 23and Me is powering toward’s Anne’s goal of one million genomes sequenced.

It’s not a totally fair comparison of course as the NHS ambition is full sequencing, whereas, as she explains in the video, 23andMe focuses on what they consider the key areas; nevertheless it’s impressive stuff and an indication of just how quickly technology is changing healthcare.