Noor Siddiqui, founder and CEO of Orchid, throughout the web summit for careers during Day 2 of the 2014 Web Summit in Dublin, Ireland, Nov. 5, 2014.
Stephen McCarthy | Getty Images
Reproductive technology startup Orchid on Tuesday announced a comprehensive recent genetic test which will help many prospective parents across the U.S. breathe a bit easier.
The corporate is launching the primary commercially available whole genome sequencing report for embryos, designed for couples undergoing in vitro fertilization, which is a form of treatment for people experiencing infertility or who’re susceptible to passing on genetic problems.
With IVF, after a girl has had around two weeks of day by day hormone injections, her mature eggs are extracted and fertilized in a lab, and the viable embryos are later transferred into the uterus.
Orchid said its recent test will help couples identify whether their embryos present genetic risks corresponding to birth defects, neurodevelopmental disorders, chromosomal abnormalities, or pediatric and adult-onset cancers that were previously only detectable after birth.
“That is a significant advance in the quantity of knowledge parents can have,” Noor Siddiqui, Orchid’s founder and CEO, told CNBC in an interview. “The way in which that you would be able to use that information is de facto up to you, nevertheless it gives so much more control and confidence right into a process that, for all of history, has just been totally left to likelihood.”
Orchid’s technology sequences greater than 99% of an embryo’s genome, while existing tests typically read around .25%, the corporate said in a release.
IVF is a taxing process that may cost a mean of greater than $12,000 in the U.S., according to the Institute for Reproductive Health. Success just isn’t guaranteed, and a few people undergo multiple rounds of IVF before a pregnancy develops.
Orchid’s genetic test will cost couples an extra $2,500 per embryo sequenced, nevertheless it doesn’t add any recent steps or risks to the IVF process, Siddiqui said. She added that the fee of the report should come down as the corporate is ready to scale up its operations and introduce more automation.
“We would like to make this something that is accessible to everyone,” Siddiqui said.
Starting Tuesday, Orchid’s technology will probably be available at IVF clinics in major cities corresponding to Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Austin, and Siddiqui said Orchid will be made available at additional clinics on the request of patients.
Couples will receive their report back from Orchid after about three weeks, the corporate said, and a board-certified genetic counselor will help them understand the outcomes.
Orchid’s whole genome embryo report
Courtesy: Orchid
Orchid has secured $12 million in funding from investors corresponding to Prometheus Fund and Refactor Capital. Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and CEO of 23andMe; Dylan Field, the co-founder and CEO of Figma; Fidji Simo, the CEO of Instacart; Brian Armstrong, the co-founder CEO of Coinbase, and others are also backers.
For a lot of hopeful parents, the peace of mind is value Orchid’s steep price.
Roshan George, a 35-year-old engineer in San Francisco, began the IVF process together with his wife, Julie, in the autumn.
George said they were feeling some anxiety about having a baby at an older age, and their nerves were amplified after their IVF clinic discovered they’re each carriers for nonsyndromic hearing loss, which may end up in a partial or total lack of hearing.
George had heard of Orchid through some friends, he said, and the couple decided to sequence all three of their viable embryos with the corporate. He said getting the embryos tested was very straightforward, and when the outcomes got here back, they found that two out of the three embryos were healthy.
“We were super relieved right off the bat,” George told CNBC in an interview. “That was very gratifying to hear.”
“Just having a point of certainty — you are going to make certain they don’t seem to be sick after they’re born and all that kind of stuff — it’s an enormous amount of tension that is been lifted off,” George said.
George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, is an investor and an adviser at Orchid. Church developed the primary direct genome sequencing method, he said, and Orchid’s technology will give parents the flexibility to access 100 times more details about their baby than they might attain previously.
Church said it’s “perfectly logical” for folks to care about helping their children, whether it pertains to their genetic health, the standard of their food or whether or not they get enough sleep and exercise.
He added that individuals often think that genetic risks don’t apply to them, or that there is nothing they will do if something is flawed. But with Orchid, Church said parents have the detailed information they need to make informed decisions.
“Should you went to Las Vegas with a 97% likelihood of winning, you’d definitely go to Las Vegas,” Church told CNBC in an interview. “Nevertheless it’s different once you’re talking about quarters as opposed to children.”
Orchid’s primary focus after the launch Tuesday will probably be on scaling up its technology and making it more accessible, Siddiqui said.
She said Orchid has spent an “enormous amount of effort” identifying the mutations that may cause severe disease while pregnant or early childhood or result in serious chronic conditions. She wanted to ensure the corporate is ready to provide parents with information that’s “super meaningful.”
“I feel this has the potential to totally redefine reproduction,” Siddiqui said. “I just think that is really exciting to have the opportunity to make people more confident about one of the vital essential decisions of their life, and to give them a bit bit more control.”