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January 12, 2015 at 05:54 AM
(Bloomberg) — 23andMe Inc., the genetic-testing startup backed by Google Inc., is sharing DNA data on about 650,000 individuals with Pfizer Inc., to help find new targets to treat disease and to design clinical trials.
The collaboration with Pfizer is the broadest announced so far in 23andMe’s ambitious plan to become a repository for humanity’s genetic makeup, and to turn data gathered from $99 saliva tests sold to consumers into multimillion-dollar deals with drugmakers.
The agreement unveiled today gives the U.S.’s largest drugmaker access to anonymous, aggregated information from consumers who bought 23andMe’s test over the past seven years to learn about their own genetic histories. It includes only people who agreed to let their data be used in research. Pfizer and 23andMe declined to give the deal’s value.
The Silicon Valley startup, named for the 23 pairs of chromosomes in human cells, is betting its growing troves of genetic data will prove essential to drug companies, medical researchers and even marketers for non-drug companies.
Even as it seeks to expand its consumer tests around the world, the company is repairing relations with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. An agency ruling in late 2013 left 23andMe unable to sell health analyses from the saliva tests.
While about two-thirds of 23andMe’s 800,000 customers agreed to let their test data be used in research, data-sharing agreements with drugmakers are likely to raise the hackles of privacy advocates who have questioned the wisdom of compiling highly personal information.
Ten Deals
The deal gives Pfizer access to a broad cross-section of data, the first agreement in which a drugmaker has access 23andMe’s newly created research portal. 23andMe Chief Executive Officer Anne Wojcicki plans to pitch the service to other health companies this week at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco. The company plans to announce a total of 10 similar deals with drugmakers and biotechnology companies this year.
23andMe, based in Mountain View, California, is near the Bay Area’s biggest technology companies, including Google, co- founded by Wojcicki’s husband Sergey Brin. The two are separated, though still legally married.
Google’s venture-capital arm and investors such as Russian billionaire Yuri Milner, Johnson & Johnson and venture-capital firm New Enterprise Associates have contributed $126 million in funding to date, according to 23andMe spokeswoman Jackie Kahn.
The company isn’t yet profitable, and it’s too early to consider an initial public offering, Wojcicki said.
Disease Studies
While Pfizer has already worked with 23andMe on irritable bowel disease studies, the deal broadens their collaboration. Pfizer and 23andMe will also enroll 5,000 patients to conduct a study on the genetics of autoimmune disease lupus.
The company has also signed agreements on specific diseases, including one with Roche Holding AG’s Genentech unit announced last week, to study Parkinson’s disease patients.
