The at-home testing market is bigger than just Covid tests, and it's bigger than over-the-counter pregnancy tests.
In fact, the emerging marketplace of consumer-initiated lab testing may be worth more than $2 billion by 2025, according to Quest Diagnostics.
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"We have experienced over 100% growth in 2021 over 2020," Everly Health CEO Julia Cheek told CNBC. Everly Health provides at-home lab testing through Everlywell.
New entrants, like Everlywell, coordinate testing to get it directly into the consumer's hands.
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Tests can calculate anything from fertility to STDs using the same testing infrastructure built by the likes of diagnostics companies as well as some of the top laboratories in the nation.
"We are a wellness test. We do not diagnose any conditions. We give you information so that you can go have an informed conversation with your doctor," Modern Fertility co-founder Afton Vechery told CNBC.
Vechery started Modern Fertility after realizing getting her own fertility information proved more difficult than she thought it would be. Her OB-GYN wouldn't order a panel of hormone testing.
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"They said, 'No, Afton, you're not trying and failing to conceive right now. We're not going to order that for you,'" she said. When Vechery eventually got these tests done, she received a bill in the mail for $1,500.
"That was totally unexpected to me, and so we really wanted to bring this to market in a way where we could provide access for as many people with ovaries as possible," she explained of her experience and Modern Fertility's mission.
Seventy percent of all health-care decisions are based on diagnostic testing services, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Watch the video above to learn more about how this business model works, the start-ups fueling the market and how costs compare with the traditional lab model.
