A decade ago, Othman Laraki was working as a product manager at Google when he found out he was a carrier of a harmful BRCA2 gene mutation, one associated with a high risk of cancer.
It wasn’t a complete surprise—his grandmother had died from breast cancer and his mother was a carrier of the mutation who had survived the disease twice. Still, it set his brain in motion. He’d been carrying around potential life-saving data in his body his entire life but had no easy way to access it.
“This information should be available and usable before people get sick,” said Laraki. “And not after you’ve had multiple people in your family die of cancer.”
Thus, was born Color Genomics, a genetic-testing company co-founded in 2013 by Laraki that has attracted $150 million in investments from big names including billionaire Laurene Powell Jobs and the venture capital firm General Catalyst. The Burlingame, California-based startup scored funding from the National Institutes of Health to analyze genomic data for the agency’s All of Us research program.
After first launching with a clinical-grade test for 19 genes associated with common hereditary cancers in 2015, the company on Thursday rolled out a significant expansion that seeks to capture a far larger swath of the booming genetic-testing market.
Color will now offer one simplified $249 test with two new features. One is a foray into so-called pharmocogenetics that analyzes 14 genes associated with common prescription drugs. For example, the test could provide insight into whether mental-health medications like Zoloft and Paxil may work better or worse for certain individuals.
Another test takes aim more squarely at direct-to-consumer competitors like 23andMe, addressing less medically significant questions like what a person’s genes say about his or her taste for cilantro. Those new tests will be rolled into one product along with Color’s other offerings.
