Since launching a decade ago , the consumer transmitted testing companionship 23andMe has sell mass more than two million desoxyribonucleic acid tests revealing information about their wellness and ancestry . chain mail - in spit tests , though , are n’t the company ’s long - term plan for striking it deep . On Tuesday , we capture a peep at what is : Turning the hereditary information from millions of client into a massive drug - discovery pipeline .
In 2015 , the society began exploring the possibility of using consumer genetic data for drug discovery , forming apartnershipwith the pharmaceutical goliath Pfizer to conduct drug research . At the clock time , the party also launched a newtherapeutics division , recruiting scientist from major drug development fellowship like Genentech . It has launched inquiry efforts intoParkinson ’s , just this week announcing inNaturethat it had discover 17 newfangled genetic markers link up to jeopardy of developing the disease . Last year it also launched apartnership dedicatedto understanding the relationship between fertility and genetic science .
Now this week , the company announced that it has raised$250 million in new capital , with much of that financial support ear - marked for expanding its already - growing curative division .
When consumers take 23andMe ’s test , they are award with the choice of have their data ( anonymously ) used for research . 23andMe then uses this information for its own enquiry , as well as selling it to third - party partners . More than 80 percent of customers consent , fit in to the party . In the past times , the great unwashed have raised concern that 23andMe ’s ambitions may violate consumer ’ familial concealment , speculatingthat the fellowship ’s recollective - term goals admit selling your information for advertising purpose . The only real shabbiness , though , may be that that consumers are forking over $ 199 to 23andMe when the data itself is already a cash moo-cow .
Already , 23andMe has published more than 80 peer - review report based on customer data point . The average customer , the company says , contribute to 200 different inquiry subject area . With the expansion , we can expect to see a lot more .
So what does that mean for you , dear consumer ? This yr , 23andMe became thefirst transmissible examination companyto get clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to sell tests advising consumer on their risk of modernize certain familial disease . In the futurity , 23andMe might recount you you ’re at peril for a disease — and then be capable to turn around and sell you a remedy .
23andMegenetic testingpharmaceuticalsScience
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