FDA takes new action to advance the development of reliable and beneficial genetic tests that can improve patient care

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took a significant step forward in driving the efficient development of novel diagnostic technologies that scan a person’s DNA to diagnose genetic diseases and guide medical treatments. For the first time, the agency has formally recognized a public database that contains information about genes, genetic variants and their relationship to disease.

The FDA is recognizing the genetic variant information in the Clinical Genome Resource (ClinGen) consortium’s ClinGen Expert Curated Human Genetic Data, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as a source of valid scientific evidence that can be used to support clinical validity in premarket submissions. The information contained in this open database has been collected and studied by researchers across the world. This recognition by the FDA will facilitate test developers, including those that use a technology known as next generation sequencing, to rely on the information available in the database to support the validity of their tests, instead of having to generate the information on their own.

Genetic tests work by looking at a person’s DNA to detect genomic variations that may determine whether a person has or is at risk of developing a genetic disease and, in certain cases, may help to inform treatment decisions. Unlike traditional diagnostics that typically detect chemical changes associated with a single disease or condition, DNA-based assays can look at hundreds to millions of DNA changes in a single test to help determine the cause of a person’s disease or condition.

Availability of these types of tests plays an important role in advancing how clinicians and researchers learn about diseases, how innovators develop new treatments, and how doctors improve patient care.

The agency’s policies seek to encourage data sharing and outline an approach clarifying how test developers may rely on clinical evidence provided in FDA-recognized public databases to support clinical claims for their tests and help provide assurance that the test is “clinically valid,” which, in the case of genetic tests, is the relationship between a gene variation and a specific disease.

Today’s action – which recognizes the ClinGen consortium’s ClinGen Expert Curated Human Genetic Data as a source of valid scientific evidence that can support clinical validity – means that developers of genetic tests have assurance of the reliability of the freely available data that they can use in support of their applications for marketing authorizations with the agency, rather than generating the same data on their own. The new recognition means developers will not need to demonstrate to the FDA the reliability of the database, the data and information within which can be used to support the relationship between a gene variation and a specific disease that are within the scope of the recognition. For example, the sponsor of a test that detects variants involved in hereditary cardiomyopathy could point to the cardiomyopathy genetic variant information available in ClinGen as part of a submission to support clinical validity of their test.

The experts who are part of the consortium determine how each variant is associated with a specific hereditary disease or condition and make that information available for unrestricted use in the community.

In its recognition of ClinGen, the FDA reviewed variant classifications and the processes that support them for gene changes in reproductive cells (germline variant) in hereditary disease where there is a high likelihood that the disease or condition will materialize if the gene is altered. Genetic tests may use germline variant information to detect for cardiomyopathy, hearing loss, inborn errors of metabolism and other hereditary conditions.