Drugmakers Are Set to Pay 23andMe Millions to Access Consumer DNA

L4sBot@lemmy.worldmod to Technology@lemmy.world – 433 points –
Drugmakers Are Set to Pay 23andMe Millions to Access Consumer DNA
bloomberg.com

Drugmakers Are Set to Pay 23andMe Millions to Access Consumer DNA::GSK will pay the DNA testing company $20 million for non-exclusive access to genetic data.

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It’s almost like we all saw this coming when these services started taking off. I’ll never put myself into one, and at least from my best knowledge none of my close family has either

Well if it helps accelerate the development of life saving medications I suppose it's the least offensive use of that data.

Much preferred over say insurance companies using it or hostile governments lmao

if it helps accelerate the development of life saving medications

LMAO

Goldman Sachs: "Is curing patients a sustainable business model?"

Not if Wall Street has anything to do with it!

We may and should point to all questionably bad practices of these drug companies, but I think humanity is still far better off with their research advancements than without them. So I'm all for using my data for that purpose like 23andMe is doing. Now insurance companies and lobbyists - these can go to hell.

If you can keep someone from dying by being dependent on only your medication, you've created a customer for life rather than one who died and didn't give you all their money to live another day.

The name of the report is horrific, but a little misleading with just the title. It's specifically a report about gene therapies, which are obviously still happening. Just look at spinal muscular atrophy, Duchene muscular dystrophy, sickle cell anemia about to be approved, and many others already approved or well on their way.

The main points of the report are a little more benign than the title of the report would suggest and are mostly making suggestions on how to keep a biotech company that is focused on developing cures for rare diseases solvent and running. Their main suggestions were to have a mix of both common and rare diseases, prioritizing diseases with high morbidity (like spinal muscular atrophy), and to keep a constant pipeline of new cures coming out for more rare diseases.

Don't get me wrong I have many issues with big pharma, but the way that analyst's report title gets used is very misleading.

We all know it won’t stop there. Once they have it they’re going to make as much money off of it as possible.

I’m pretty sure insurance companies already have some kind of access to this stuff, despite saying they don’t.