23andMe, the corporate whose mail-in self-testing kits grew to become synonymous with DNA testing, is submitting for chapter amid slowing gross sales 4 years after it went public. Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe in 2006, is stepping down as CEO as the corporate tries to discover a purchaser.
In January, 23andMe mentioned it was exploring choices for a sale amid slowing demand for its product and the fallout of a serious information breach in 2023. In 2024, the corporate agreed to a monetary settlement for the breach, which affected 6.9 million customers. The corporate had additionally introduced layoffs of about 40% of its workforce in late 2024. Lately, the corporate’s inventory dipped under a greenback, placing it in peril of being delisted from the NASDAQ.
In a notice to prospects, the corporate mentioned nothing is presently altering about the way in which it shops, manages or protects buyer information and that the corporate remains to be open for enterprise and promoting DNA kits. “Via this course of, we are going to search to discover a associate who shares our dedication to buyer information privateness and permits our mission of serving to folks entry, perceive and profit from the human genome to stay on,” the corporate mentioned in its put up.
At its peak, 23andMe grew to become the best-known title within the rising space of DNA self-testing, with customers paying $99 for kits that gave them insights into their genetic make-up, potential kinfolk and ancestry. However the firm’s momentum slowed down in recent times after its $3.5 billion public providing in 2021.
Individuals who have used 23andMe and are involved about what would possibly occur to their information in a sale have choices: They will obtain their data then delete their account, in addition to ask the corporate to discard their DNA materials along with deleting the info. Doing so will hold DNA data from being utilized in future analysis, however it could’t be faraway from analysis that has already been finished.
‘Get your information out of there’
Arthur Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at NYU’s Grossman Faculty of Medication, has been crucial of 23andMe for many years. He mentioned he was not shocked by the announcement, having simply predicted it in January.
“They have been extra eager about getting information, saliva, to resell,” Caplan instructed CNET. “It was marketed and obtained as a cute hobbyist type of factor. However that wasn’t actually the purpose that gave it the billions of {dollars} of worth it as soon as had.”
Caplan mentioned the corporate’s enterprise mannequin promised ancestry data that he believes was not dependable to start with.
“I do not assume the science was superb,” he mentioned, including with a sale of the corporate, there is not any authorized obligation to make sure buyer privateness beneath one other proprietor.
The dangers, Caplan mentioned, is that the info could possibly be utilized in methods individuals who’ve handed over their saliva cannot anticipate.
“DNA data could be very delicate — it could let you know issues about paternity, it could lead authorities companies to come back after you that you simply did not take into consideration,” he mentioned. “The genetic information could possibly be used to promote or market to you. A 3rd occasion may resolve you are not eligible for insurance coverage.
“My recommendation is get your information out of there. I might not go away it there and it could be too late,” Caplan mentioned.