The roughly 15 million customers of genetic data outfit 23andMe may be at greater risk than they realize, suggests a new New York Times story that argues the company’s near-term woes could become problematic for others for a very long time if it can’t continue as a going concern. Certainly, with each passing day, the hope of founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki to take it private again seems more like fantasy. The company, valued at $6 billion when it went public in 2021, is now valued at $150 million.
It’s poised to be delisted next month. Press stories aren’t helping. (Would you buy a kit?) The company says it remains committed to “follow laws that regulate the data we collect,” but all that genomic data in the wrong hands could be a problem that worsens.
As a Yale biomedical professor observes to the Times, a hacked credit card can be replaced; a genome cannot. Meanwhile, the tech that analyzes genomes is advancing. Chances are it will become more revealing, too.
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