Weight-loss gene test in the spotlight

WEIGHT-loss programs based on genetic tests operating out of pharmacies at a $1600 cost to patients have become the latest enterprise to expose the Pharmacy Guild to controversy over its links to commercialized care.

The guild, already under a cloud over its deals with drug companies and the abandoned agreement with complementary medicine giant Blackmores, has an agreement with a genetic testing company to provide dietitian-led weight-loss programs at pharmacy clinics.

Experts have dismissed the genetic test-based weight-loss program as a ''gimmick'' which did not have the support of clinical research.

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Under the Pharmacy Guild's agreement with a Melbourne-based testing company, MyGene, pharmacies provide clinic space for a dietitian to take the test swab which is then analysed for genes linked to how the body metabolises carbohydrates and lipids.

The in-pharmacy dietitian then provides nine sessions of dietary advice based on the test results which are said to guide ''a personally optimised eating plan and weight-loss program'', a joint statement by the guild and MyGene stated when the scheme was launched in March.

The overall price for test and dietitian services is $1600, the managing director of MyGene, Nick Argyrou, said yesterday.

Mr Argyrou said the scheme had proved ''very popular'' and was now offered in 15 pharmacies, mostly in Victoria and about to open in Sydney and had been successful in reducing patients' weight.

A spokesman for the guild said that under due diligence arrangements, MyGene had produced ''a body of supporting evidence''.

Associate Professor Katie Allen, a gastroenterologist and food allergy expert, said the research findings MyGene cited did not back the use of genetic tests to guide weight-loss programs. While the idea of tailoring a diet to fit with a particular patient's profile ''would be wonderful, at the present time there is insufficient evidence to support that as a currently available therapy'', Professor Allen of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute said.

But Toorak pharmacist John Button, whose store offers the MyGene service, says he accepts the scheme might be controversial, but said: ''I don't think it is charlatanism. It is not a poke in the dark.''

The weight-loss program had worked for his customers, including his friends who had been pleased with the results.

Mr Button said he did not receive any ''kickback'' and his only revenue from the service was sales of the meal substitute diet shakes recommended to customers in line with the recommendation of the dietitian on the basis of the genetic test findings.

A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration, said yesterday it appeared that the MyGene test for weight loss was not a therapeutic good and did not need to be registered as a therapeutic good.

Source theage.com by Mark Metherell