From The Washington Post
23andMe’s DNA database is up for sale. Who might want it, and what for?
By Anumita Kaur
Genetic information company 23andMe has said that it is headed to bankruptcy court, raising questions for what happens to the DNA shared by millions of people with the company via saliva test kits.
Sunday’s announcement clears the way for a new company to purchase 23andMe — and the wealth of genetic information in its databases. The privacy statement of 23andMe reads: “If we are involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization, or sale of assets, your Personal Information may be accessed, sold or transferred as part of that transaction...”
It’s unclear who might take ownership of 23andMe. But experts said there are a lot of reasons genetic data could be valuable. “There are a breadth of commercial actors that may want to use genetic data for all sorts of commercial enterprises,” said Jennifer King, a privacy and data policy fellow at the Stanford University Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.
Pharmaceutical companies and precision medicine companies might be interested in acquiring such data, King said. Drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline purchased a $300 million stake in 23andMe in 2018 and licensed its data for drug development. Another genetic-testing company also may want to grab the database, she added...
Jennifer King earned her Ph.D. at the School of Information in 2018. Currently, she is the Director of Privacy at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society.
