Google to offer employees Foundation Medicine's Cancer tests from January 2015

Google will soon start covering the cost of Foundation Medicine’s DNA tests for employees and their family-members suffering from cancer, as part of its health benefits portfolio. Foundation Medicine’s chief executive Michael Pellini gave a nod to the deal with Google during a corporate earnings call on Wednesday, according to a person who listened in. Pellini said Google employees were made aware of this new benefit last week. Google declined to comment. Foundation Medicine helps steer oncologists to a drug treatment based on the patient’s genetic profile. Its two commercially available tests range from $5,800 to $7,200. Google will start covering these tests in January, 2015. This move from Google follows an announcement from Silicon Valley tech companies Apple and Facebook that they would begin covering the cost of egg freezing for female employees. In Silicon Valley, where software developers are in short supply, companies are competing to offer new health benefits as a key means to recruit and retain talent. Google’s investment arm Google Ventures has previously invested in Foundation Medicine. Google Ventures’ partner Krishna Yeshwant sits on Foundation Medicine’s board. Recently, Google has been observed to take interest in people’s health. At Google I/O this year, the company had announced their  Google Fit device which was a health and fitness tracking platform. The Fit functions similarly to recently introduced services from Apple and Samsung. The tracking and analysis of health information is expected to be a big driver for smartwatches and other sensor-laden devices this year. With inputs from Reuters