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23andMe, the personal genetics startup backed by Facebook billionaire Yuri Milner and Google Ventures, has been plagued by obstacles on its mission to become the world’s repository for human genetic information—including a drawn-out standoff with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But the company is persevering.
On Monday, 23andMe announced it is sharing (anonymously) the DNA data it has collected on 650,000 individuals with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer. Sharing resources, the companies say, will help them figure out new ways to treat disease and to design clinical trials.
The terms of the deal were not disclosed publicly, but any good news is a step forward for the beleaguered startup. Since it launched in 2007, the Silicon Valley startup has built its business on analyzing DNA extracted from customers’ saliva to let them learn more about their ancestry, inherited traits, and risk factors for medical conditions. About 800,000 customers have signed up for 23andMe’s services over seven years, with two-thirds of them giving consent to let their personal test data be used in research.
Researchers hope to use 23andMe’s trove of genetic data to decipher connections between DNA and disease.
During those years, the company endured its share of controversy, culminating in a late-2013 clash with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which claimed 23andMe was in effect marketing a medical device without proper approvals. The FDA also contended the startup was slow in responding to agency inquiries, further souring their relationship.
The company dealt with the blow in part by selling its tests outside the U.S. And 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki recently told Bloomberg that the startup has been trying to repair its ties with the FDA. In May, the company began focusing its efforts on a new test limited to detecting a single genetic disorder, called Bloom syndrome, she said. The hope, according to Wojcicki, is that proceedings will move faster once this test is approved by the agency.
Valuable Data
In the meantime, 23andMe appears to have figured out how to capitalize on the trove of personal test data it has already acquired. The anonymized collection of gene scans represents a huge sample of genetic profiles from which researchers hope to decipher connections between DNA and disease. The data appears to be valuable enough that Pfizer isn’t the only big pharma company looking to dig further. Last week, according to a Forbes , 23andMe inked a deal with Genentech worth $10 million up front, and up to $50 million if further milestones are reached.
With two big names already on their roster of clients, it’s likely that other major pharmaceutical companies will follow suit in hopes of leveling the competitive playing field. And in fact 23andMe has said it would announce a total of 10 similar deals with drugmakers and biotechnology companies this year. It’s also likely, though, that collaborating with so many big pharmaceutical companies will bring renewed scrutiny from privacy advocates who have criticized the collection of so much highly personal data into one place.
But controversy is nothing new to 23andMe, and as its tests sit on the shelf, it’s understandable the company would look to capitalize on one of its most valuable assets. Leveraging its data has always been part of 23andMe’s business plan. If pharmaceutical companies are able to sift that data and uncover new treatments, that data could come to benefit us all.
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