May 19, 4:17 PM EDT/ by Maggie Harrison Dupré
Bankrupt 23andMe Just Sold Off All Your DNA Data
There’s nothing you can do about it.
Your DNA results are in — and they’re 100 percent the property of a pharmaceutical manufacturer.
American biotech company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals announced today that it’s buying 23andMe, the bankrupt consumer-genomics company that sold take-home DNA kits. Regeneron is to pay $256 million in cash to acquire “substantially all” of 23andMe’s assets, including its massive biobank of around 15 million customer genetic samples and data.
Put simply, the genetic information of millions is now in the hands of a drugmaker seeking to mine it to make new therapies, per the Washington Post, which could be a data privacy nightmare in the making
Said samples were willingly given by consumers in exchange for 23andMe to decode their DNA, a process that offered people a fascinating glimpse into their genetic makeup and family histories. That kind of biometric data is both wildly valuable and widely sought-after, so when 23andMe went belly-up financially, its trove of genetic information quickly drew attention as a lucrative asset. That realization immediately sparked concerns among data privacy experts, who warned that a sale of 23andMe data meant that the genetic information of customers, not to mention information about customers’ close and distant relatives, was up for grabs to the highest bidder.
In its press release, Regeneron said it “intends” to honor 23andMe’s existing privacy practices. Regeneron cofounder and president George Yancopoulos, meanwhile, issued a statement emphasizing the drugmaker’s “deep experience with large-scale data management, having worked with collaborators around the world to link deidentified DNA sequences from nearly three million consented participants to electronic health records, safely and securely enabling future medical advances.”
“We believe we can help 23andMe deliver and build upon its mission to help those interested in learning about their own DNA and how to improve their personal health,” Yancopoulos’ statement continued, “while furthering Regeneron’s efforts to use large-scale genetics research to improve the way society treats and prevents illness overall.”
That said, Regeneron isn’t just a research lab. It sells the drugs it creates, and should genomic data gleaned from the historic sale lead to the creation and eventual monetization of medications, it raises questions around whether consumers will ever be compensated for their contributions.
23andMe board chair Mark Jensen, for his part, said in a statement that the deal “maximizes the value of the business and enables the mission of 23andMe to live on, while maintaining critical protections around customer privacy, choice, and consent with respect to their genetic data.”
More on 23andMe: 23andMe Is Selling All Your Data, in Largest Sale of Genomes in History
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