Bao Tram: Personally, what I’m interested in is how I can access GeneStory’s services. Can you tell us more about that?
Long Nguyen: We want to provide a process that’s as simple as possible. You can get your DNA either at home, we send you a kit to collect your DNA sample at home, by yourself, just via 1ml of saliva sample or you can do that via one of our partnered clinics in Hanoi, like Vinmec and some other hospitals as we’re expanding the network. The doctor can take your blood sample, send it to our lab, and within 2-3 weeks we give you a really comprehensive genomic profile of your health and your body. So with more than 100 indicators, which drugs you can use, which drugs you must avoid and what other dosing. And also the common health risks, like what’s your risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.
Bao Tram: So how about the price then?
Long Nguyen: The simplest package is 1.8 million VND, which lets you analyse one gene and one drug. For example, in Vietnam there’s a million people with mental health issues and gout, right? And 20-25% of those will have an adverse drug reaction to one of the most commonly prescribed drugs. And our test, for 60-70 dollars, will help you to prevent that. It’s a huge economical savings.
The most comprehensive package would be about 6 million VND (about 280 dollars), which will give you insights into more than 100 medications and drugs of all common disease groups – cardiovascular, diabetes, gout, mental health, and cancer with more than 100 types of drugs
Bao Tram: Interesting! I think the price is reasonable.
Long Nguyen: Exactly! Our mission is really to provide it to every Vietnamese at an affordable price. And Vietnam has one of the fastest-growing middle class populations in Southeast Asia, which is really a good target group for our products.
Bao Tram: What’s your future plan?
Long Nguyen: First of all, we want to expand our channels with the pharmacogenomics package. We are covering more than 100 types of drugs and we want to include more and more of the commonly prescribed medications for Vietnamese, so they can make sure to use the medication safely and effectively.
Second, we are working on a unique diabetes risk prediction package, which can predict whether you have high chance of getting diabetes and the data is really specific for Vietnamese. And, more importantly, we can predict whether you will get complications from diabetes. For example, people who get diabetes can develop cardiovascular disease or blindness. If you predict the risk early enough, you’ll reduce that risk at least 4 times and will be able to live a healthier life.
Bao Tram: This month GeneStory won VietChallenge 2022, the biggest contest for Vietnamese startups around the world, winning a cash prize of 25,000 USD. What does this mean to you?
Long Nguyen: First of all, I’d like to say thanks to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and VietChallenge for providing the platform VietChallenge for Vietnamese startups around the world. I think the platform is a great opportunity for us to learn and grow and get connected to a lot of investors both outside and inside Vietnam to expand our ecosystem and provide necessary capital for growth. As for the prize money and the money that hopefully is going to be raised soon after this contest, we want to invest it in our capability so that we can serve more and more Vietnamese at a lower price, and invest more in our laboratory capabilities to drive the cost down so gradually genomics will become something that every Vietnamese person can afford.
Bao Tram: Thank you for spending time with us.
Long Nguyen: It’s my pleasure to speak to you today.