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The legislation is intended to ensure that individuals are protected fromgenetic discrimination from employers and insurance companies by prohibitinginsurers from denying coverage to an individual or charging that person higherpremiums based solely on a genetic predisposition to developing a disease.The legislation also bans employers from using an employee's geneticinformation when making hiring, firing, job placement, or promotion decisions.
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Lewis H. Bender, Chief Executive Officer of Interleukin Genetics,commented, "We believe GINA is an important piece of legislation forhealthcare. An individual is born with a given set of genes and there isnothing anyone can do about which genes they inherit. While certain geneticpatterns can be correlated with increased or decreased disease risk, genes arenot the entire story. Environmental factors such as lifestyle play asignificant role in the onset and progression of most diseases. Knowing one'sgenetic patterns and associated risks for a given disease can provide valuableinformation to guide the individual on how best to prevent disease. Acombination of monitoring activities, prophylactic treatment and lifestylechanges undertaken by an individual can lead to long and healthy life despitea high genetic risk. GINA will protect people who wish to understand theirpersonal risks better and thus should lead to improved healthcare in the U.S."
Until now, genetic discrimination was only prohibited under loose stateand federal regulations, causing consumers to be wary of taking genetic testsor participating in genetic research studies for fear that negative resultscould be used against them by insurers or employers. With the signing ofGINA, consumers should be more willing to have genetic testing that candetermine their predisposition to specific diseases; thereby allowing theindividual to make lifestyle changes and/or take preventive measures to avoiddisease.
About Interleukin Genetics
Interleukin Genetics, Inc. (Amex: ILI) is a genetics-focused personalizedhealth company that develops preventive consumer products and genetic testsfor sale to the emerging personalized health market. Focused on the future ofhealth and medicine, Interleukin uses its leading genetics research andscientific capabilities to develop and test innovative preventive andtherapeutic products. Interleukin is headquartered in Waltham, MA. For moreinformation about Interleukin, its products and ongoing programs, please visitwww.ilgenetics.com.
Certain statements contained herein are "forward-looking" statementsincluding statements regarding our ability to develop diagnostic, personalizednutritional and therapeutic products to prevent or treat diseases ofinflammation and other genetic variations, our ability to screen nutritionalcompounds for their effects on inflammatory responses and other geneticvariations, given specific genetic patterns and our ability to make progressin advancing our core technologies. Because such statements include risks anduncertainties, actual results may differ materially from those expressed orimplied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actualresults to differ materially from those expressed or implied by suchforward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the risk of marketacceptance of our products, the risk of technology and product obsolescence,delays in product development, the performance of our commercial partners, theavailability of adequate capital, the actions of our competitors and othercompetitive risks, and those risks and uncertainties described
