Genetic testing startup 23andMe, which filed for chapter earlier this yr, introduced 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 Prescribed drugs. The acquisition, which adopted a chapter public sale, is valued at $256 million and is anticipated to shut within the third quarter of this yr.
Regeneron instructed 23andMe clients that it could adhere to 23andMe’s privateness coverage, which permits clients to request to delete their private data.
Associated: ‘Shocked and Disillusioned’: All Impartial Board Members of 23andMe Resign, Leaving Solely the CEO
“We guarantee 23andMe clients that we’re dedicated to defending the 23andMe dataset,” Aris Baras, head of the Regeneron Genetics Heart, mentioned in a press launch.
Baras defined that the Regeneron Genetics Heart has expertise with genetic information, processing the genetic data of practically three million folks in analysis research because it was based in 2013. Regeneron “shares 23andMe’s founding imaginative and prescient of the ability of genetics and information,” Baras said.
Regeneron’s acquisition contains 23andMe’s private genome service, which conducts DNA testing for genetic predispositions, ancestry, and traits primarily based on a small saliva pattern. Beneath 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. Photograph by Cindy Ord/VF24/Getty Photos for Vainness Truthful
Associated: ‘Tough however Mandatory’: 23andMe Is Slicing 40% of Its Workforce
The one a part of 23andMe’s enterprise that the acquisition doesn’t cowl is its telehealth division, Lemonaid Well being, which 23andMe plans to close down. Firm workers in divisions aside from Lemonaid Well being, numbering round 300 workers, will hold their jobs.
The deal nonetheless must be authorised by the choose overseeing the chapter within the U.S. Chapter Court docket for the Jap District of Missouri.
23andMe filed for chapter in late March following a tumultuous few years. The corporate’s popularity took successful after a information breach in 2023 uncovered the info of practically seven million folks, or about half of the corporate’s customers. 23andMe agreed to pay $30 million in September to settle a lawsuit concerning the breach, however information privateness stays a degree 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 position with a purpose to be “in the very best place” to bid for complete possession of the corporate.
Wojcicki submitted a number of rejected proposals to purchase 23andMe, one in July 2024 and one other 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 unbiased administrators resigned from the board on account of strategic variations with Wojcicki. They’ve since been changed. The corporate laid off 40% of its workforce, or over 200 folks, in November to chop prices.
23andMe went public in 2021 and was valued at round $6 billion that yr at its peak.
Genetic testing startup 23andMe, which filed for chapter earlier this yr, introduced 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 Prescribed drugs. The acquisition, which adopted a chapter public sale, is valued at $256 million and is anticipated to shut within the third quarter of this yr.
Regeneron instructed 23andMe clients that it could adhere to 23andMe’s privateness coverage, which permits clients to request to delete their private data.
Associated: ‘Shocked and Disillusioned’: All Impartial Board Members of 23andMe Resign, Leaving Solely the CEO
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