Jul 28, 2018

23AndMe partnering with drug giant Glaxo to design new drugs

GlaxoSmithKline's office. Photo: Sven Hoppe/picture alliance via Getty Images

The results of home DNA testing company 23AndMe will be used by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to design new drugs, NBC News reports.

The details: 23AndMe users were allowed to opt out of research, NBC reports. The first goal is to design a new drug to treat Parkinson's disease by looking at a gene called LRRK2. 23AndMe CEO Anne Wojcicki said in a blog post about the companies' collaboration: "By working with GSK, we believe we will accelerate the development of breakthroughs."

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Axios
Updated 45 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios

  1. Politics: Fauci: Trump hasn't been to a COVID task force meeting in months — Trump claims COVID "will go away" during debate.
  2. Sports: The youth sports exodus continues — Big Ten football is back.
  3. Health: How to help save 130,000 lives — FDA approves Gilead's remdesivir as treatment — How the pandemic might end — Many U.S. deaths were avoidable.
  4. Retail: Santa won't greet kids at Macy's this year.
  5. World: Spain and France exceed 1 million cases.
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Shawna Chen
1 hour ago - Health

Fauci: Trump hasn't been to a COVID task force meeting in months

Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

President Trump has not attended a White House coronavirus task force meeting in “several months,” NIAID director Anthony Fauci told MSNBC on Friday.

Why it matters: At the beginning of the pandemic, the task force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, met every day, but in the "last several weeks," members have held virtual meetings once a week, Fauci said, even as the number of new cases continues to surge in the country.

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Axios
2 hours ago - Health

How to help save 130,000 lives

People wear face masks outside Grand Central Terminal in New York City. Photo: Noam Galai/Getty Images

Nearly 130,000 fewer people will die of COVID-19 this winter if 95% of Americans wear face masks in public, according to research published Friday.

Why it matters: “Increasing mask use is one of the best strategies that we have right now to delay the imposition of social distancing mandates," Dr. Christopher Murray of the University of Washington told the N.Y. Times.

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