Posted on 02/18/2024 5:39:11 PM PST by Red Badger
The consumer genome sequencing company 23andMe is a sinking ship – and its CEO is conducting the orchestra.
As Wired reports, 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki was chipper on a February 7 earnings call despite the company's abysmal revenue report that led to its stock being devalued to below 75 cents per share, down a whopping 93 percent from the $16.04 when it first went public.
"We are an unusual company," Wojcicki said, per Wired, during the investor call.
That response very much undersells the circumstances that may lead to 23andMe spinning off its consumer DNA testing and therapeutics wings into separate entities, like so many unraveled strands of double helixes.
That fateful earnings parley occurred just after the third anniversary of 23andMe announcing that it would be going public in 2021 and merging with a specialized holding company owned by none other than billionaire Richard Branson. The company was valued at a whopping $3.5 billion as a result, and later that same year, it purchased the Lemonaid telehealth service — but didn't unveil its tony rebranded version, a $99-per-month service now called Total Health, until this past November.
"It’s an evolution for the company in terms of just providing access to your genome," Wojcicki told Wired, "to now putting the wrapper around it and saying, 'We actually want to take care of you. We want to be your partner in prevention.'"
That's all fine and good, but it doesn't negate the fact that in only three years, 23andMe has burned through more than half its fundraised cash, gone through multiple layoff rounds, and could, as the Wall Street Journal reported last week, run out of money by next year.
While its therapeutic wing has been in the works for years, the database that undergirds its slow-going research, which is gleaned from its customers' genetic information, may also have spelled the beginning of its downfall. That database was the subject of a massive hack last year, and between that breach and the money it burned in the years since going public, things are looking bleak.
To be fair, Wojcicki's Pollyanna-ism isn't entirely blind. In an interview with Bloomberg last week, she seemed to at least acknowledge the financial hit the company's therapeutic arm has brought upon it.
"When we decided to do drug discovery," she said, "it was a commitment to saying we are going to be burning cash."
Facing down all that context, the investors whose confidence drove the company to its multi-billion-dollar valuation are clearly getting worried. Now, as 23andMe faces the risk of being delisted by Nasdaq because its stock price is in the toilet, Wojcicki says she's "optimistic" about the future.
"I think it’s a really exciting time," she told Wired. "I think that there’s going to be incredible advances in healthcare, and honestly, I’m most interested in how you shift the curve on people."
To Wojcicki's mind, the future — of 23andMe and the healthtech industry at large — will "be about integrating" genetic data into "more efficient drug discovery," a statement that belies her self-declared optimistic nature.
There is, of course, no doubt that genomic medicine is going to continue to grow — but whether 23andMe will be part of it, or even continue to exist at all, remains to be seen.
Sounds like the Brandon campaign
If you have a 23andme account delete it and your data before its is sold
You might as well just send your DNA straight to the ChiComs and Alphabet feral government agencies and cut out the 23&Me middle man, because they are going to sell it to them anyway.
The poor woman just had her 19 year old son die at UC Berkeley.
Just a flesh wound.
The Alphabet Agencies and assorted hackers have already distributed the data to all approved dictatorships willing and able to meet the ask.
Lemonade out of lemons...
Folk singer Hamilton Camp version of Guess I’m Doin’ Fine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iscKBwnU3bI
He appeared in many films and tv roles including as Leck in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fifth and sixth seasons.
If you’re the CEO, that’s your job....until you file for bankruptcy. Then, “no comment”.
That was here sister’s son...................
They were financed by Google - just think what the value of having millions of people’s DNA in the Google database-of-everything. You apply for a job, someone runs a search cross referencing characteristics of your DNA with those of people who have been successful in that kind of job and you get an offer - or not. They don’t need customers except to feed their database.
The CEO is Sergey Brin’s ex wife.
“Self made billionaire”. Is getting married to a Google founder part of self made?...
I think you are wrong about them selling to the government. I don't think they charge. From their website:
We will not release any individual-level personal information to law enforcement unless we are required to do so by court order, subpoena, search warrant or other requests that we determine are legally valid.
“I think you are wrong about them selling to the government. I don’t think they charge. From their website:
“We will not release any individual-level personal information to law enforcement unless we are required to do so by court order, subpoena, search warrant or other requests that we determine are legally valid.”
Seriously? Do you really believe that?
Used this about 10 years ago. Looking at the results I felt like bought a pet rock.
Fricking worthless!
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