23AndMe Wants to Turn Its DNA Data into New Drugs

desoxyribonucleic acid testing startup 23andMe has beendoing refreshing businesscollecting transmissible samples from over 800,000 customer . But the company just announced a new plan that ’ll set up it into the big pharma world : 23andMe isgoing to contrive its own pharmaceutical drugsusing the datum it collects from customer DNA .

This is a Brobdingnagian jump into a extremely competitive business , but it ’s not out of the blue : 23andMe already announced a deal earlier this yr with pharma ship’s company Genetech , to share customers ’ genetical selective information . This is just take that kind of research and development in house . Maybe someone at 23andMe realized they could make a buttload more money by actually inventing drugs .

So this mean there ’s a newfangled , Google - backed ship’s company looking for medicines and remedy for diseases — on the back of customers ’ genetic selective information . The make - in collection of desoxyribonucleic acid samples will give the company a satisfying inquiry foundation , and 23andMe has hired Richard Scheller , wholed Genetech ’s drug discovery teamuntil recently , to lead the charge . The Michael J. Fox Foundationis also partneringwith 23andMe for Parkinson ’s inquiry .

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There is a dark side to this , however : Big drug company is big , big money — this is not some altruistic organization , and it ’s a business that will run on client ’ personal medical data point . While 23andMe already asks for consent to betray customers ’ aggregated data to third parties , this case of research will probably ask recondite enquiry dives into specific DNA samples .

Update : 23andMe wrote me to clarify that they wo n’t dig into de - aggregated deoxyribonucleic acid without specific license first , which is fantastic . “ The therapeutics group will conduct research according to the protocol in our inquiry consent concord . This mean they ’ll study aggregate , de - key data . For private level information , that would require additional consent , per our consent agreement , ” a spokesperson wrote .

If you ’re opine about using 23andMe or you already have , this means the company is basically shifting from a deoxyribonucleic acid examination company to a drug - construct caller that use inexpensive Mary Leontyne Price tags to draw people into giving up their DNA for for - profits pharmaceutical research . And that ’s not of necessity a bad thing , especially if it results in real aesculapian progress . It is , however , something people should consider .

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