Deals For Genetic Data Raise Issues of Privacy, Sharing

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...