Beleaguered genetic testing firm 23andMe introduced Friday that it has reached an settlement to promote itself to a nonprofit led by the corporate’s co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki.
Following an enormous cyberattack in 2023 and a associated lawsuit settlement, 23andMe filed for chapter in March, with Wojcicki resigning as a way to develop into an impartial bidder for the corporate. However pharmaceutical firm Regeneron was introduced as the corporate’s acquirer with a $256 million bid.
Based on the Wall Road Journal, Wojcicki’s nonprofit TTAM Analysis Institute reopened the bidding course of by making an unsolicited bid earlier this month, and Regeneron declined to beat TTAM’s $305 million supply.
Within the announcement, TTAM (an acronym that corresponds with the primary letters of Twenty-Three And Me) mentioned that clients shall be notified of the acquisition at the very least two enterprise offers earlier than the deal closes, and that the nonprofit will proceed to abide by 23andMe’s privateness insurance policies permitting clients to delete their information and opt-out of analysis. It additionally mentioned that it’ll set up a Shopper Privateness Advisory Board inside 90 days of closing.
“I’m thrilled that TTAM Analysis Institute will have the ability to proceed the mission of 23andMe to assist folks entry, perceive and profit from the human genome,” Wojcicki wrote on LinkedIn. “We consider it’s crucial that people are empowered to have selection and transparency with respect to their genetic information and have the chance to proceed to study their ancestry and well being dangers as they want.”
The acquisition nonetheless must be permitted by the chapter courtroom, and it faces extra authorized hurdles — a gaggle of 28 state attorneys common led by New York’s Letitia James filed a lawsuit this week objecting to the sale of the corporate’s belongings.
“23andMe can’t public sale hundreds of thousands of individuals’s private genetic info with out their consent,” James mentioned.
A court-appointed privateness ombudsman additionally mentioned it’s not clear that 23andMe’s privateness insurance policies permit for the sale of its genetic information, in line with the WSJ.
Neither is it clear that 23andMe may regain shopper belief if the deal goes by. The corporate’s interim CEO Joseph Selsavage lately advised a Home Oversight Committee that 15% of shoppers had requested to delete their information because the firm filed for chapter.
