Deals For Genetic Data Raise Issues of Privacy, Sharing
By John Lauerman and Makiko Kitamura,
Bloomberg
| 01. 14. 2015
Untitled Document
In three recent deals, drugmakers are betting that personal genetic maps will finally fulfill their early promise to unlock secrets and cure diseases.
At the same time, the agreements revived questions about privacy protections and how useful personal genetic data will prove to be.
Roche Holding AG (RHHBY) committed $1 billion to take control of Foundation Medicine Inc. (FMI), which sequences genes of cancer patients, aiming to customize treatment. Roche’s Genentech unit said it would pay as much as $60 million for access to 23andMe Inc.’s data on customers with Parkinson’s disease. And Pfizer Inc. (PFE) reached a deal that will allow the drugmaker to analyze personal genetic information from 650,000 23andMe customers, without giving terms.
The pacts, together with 23andMe’s announcement that it will enter into partnerships with eight other companies this year, boosted confidence in the commercial value of gene mapping. Since the first draft of a full human genome was deciphered in 2001, researchers have predicted breakthroughs in understanding the origins of disease, only to be frustrated as business developed slowly and regulatory issues...
Related Articles
By Annika Inampudi, Science | 07.10.2025
Before a baby in the United States reaches a few days old, doctors will run biochemical tests on a few drops of their blood to catch certain genetic diseases that need immediate care to prevent brain damage or other serious...
By Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Washington Post | 07.17.2025
Nearly 2 million people protected their privacy by deleting their DNA from 23andMe after it declared bankruptcy in March. Now it’s back with the same person in charge — and I still don’t trust it.
Nor do the attorneys general...
By Elizabeth Dwoskin and Yeganeh Torbati, The Washington Post | 07.16.2025
A group of well-heeled, 30-something women sat down to dinner last spring at a table set with pregnancy-friendly mocktails and orchids, ready to hear a talk about how to optimize their offspring.
Noor Siddiqui, the founder of an embryo-screening start-up...
By Suzanne O'Sullivan, New Scientist | 07.09.2025
Rare diseases are often hard to spot. They can evade detection until irreversible organ damage or disability has already set in. Last month, in the hope of preventing just this type of harm, the UK’s health secretary, Wes Streeting, announced...
