Genetic testing startup 23andMe, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this yr, announced on Monday that it has agreed to promote the genetic information of its 15 million customers, together with its core enterprise, to drug developer Regeneron Prescription drugs. The acquisition, which adopted a chapter public sale, is valued at $256 million and is predicted to shut within the third quarter of this yr.
Regeneron instructed 23andMe prospects that it will adhere to 23andMe’s privateness coverage, which permits prospects to request to delete their private info.
Associated: ‘Surprised and Disappointed’: All Independent Board Members of 23andMe Resign, Leaving Only the CEO
“We guarantee 23andMe prospects that we’re dedicated to defending the 23andMe dataset,” Aris Baras, head of the Regeneron Genetics Middle, said in a press release.
Baras defined that the Regeneron Genetics Middle has expertise with genetic information, processing the genetic info of almost three million individuals in analysis research because it was founded in 2013. Regeneron “shares 23andMe’s founding imaginative and prescient of the facility of genetics and information,” Baras acknowledged.
Regeneron’s acquisition contains 23andMe’s private genome service, which conducts DNA testing for genetic predispositions, ancestry, and traits based mostly on a small saliva pattern. Below the acquisition, 23andMe will proceed its day by day operations as a private genomics service, however as a subsidiary of Regeneron, and proceed to supply genetic testing.
Anne Wojcicki. Picture by Cindy Ord/VF24/Getty Photographs for Self-importance Truthful
Associated: ‘Difficult but Necessary’: 23andMe Is Cutting 40% of Its Workforce
The one a part of 23andMe’s enterprise that the acquisition doesn’t cowl is its telehealth division, Lemonaid Health, which 23andMe plans to close down. Firm employees in divisions apart from Lemonaid Well being, numbering round 300 employees, will hold their jobs.
The deal nonetheless needs to be authorized by the choose overseeing the chapter within the U.S. Chapter Courtroom for the Japanese District of Missouri.
23andMe filed for chapter in late March following a tumultuous few years. The corporate’s popularity took successful after a data breach in 2023 uncovered the info of almost seven million individuals, or about half of the corporate’s customers. 23andMe agreed to pay $30 million in September to settle a lawsuit in regards to the breach, however information privateness stays some extent of concern.
23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki, 51, resigned as 23andMe’s CEO following information of the chapter however continued to serve on the corporate’s board of administrators. Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe in 2006 and owns 49% of the corporate, mentioned that she had resigned from the CEO function as a way to be “in the very best place” to bid for complete possession of the corporate.
Wojcicki submitted just a few rejected proposals to purchase 23andMe, one in July 2024 and another in February to buy the entire firm’s shares that she did not already personal in money for $2.53 per share, for an fairness worth of $74.7 million.
In September, all of 23andMe’s impartial administrators resigned from the board as a consequence of strategic variations with Wojcicki. They’ve since been replaced. The corporate laid off 40% of its workforce, or over 200 individuals, in November to chop prices.
23andMe went public in 2021 and was valued at around $6 billion that yr at its peak.
Genetic testing startup 23andMe, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this yr, announced on Monday that it has agreed to promote the genetic information of its 15 million customers, together with its core enterprise, to drug developer Regeneron Prescription drugs. The acquisition, which adopted a chapter public sale, is valued at $256 million and is predicted to shut within the third quarter of this yr.
Regeneron instructed 23andMe prospects that it will adhere to 23andMe’s privateness coverage, which permits prospects to request to delete their private info.
Associated: ‘Surprised and Disappointed’: All Independent Board Members of 23andMe Resign, Leaving Only the CEO
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