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GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

fiercebiotech.com

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Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#61

Post by notabee »

koolba wrote: post #46
snissn wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you neglect the dystopian aspect (which I don't have issue doing) the possibility is amazing as someone who is not immune to health problems and appreciates modern medicine.

Preventative targeted therapies lead to over testing. Even worse there is the perverse incentive of having a for profit company marketing the intersection of their products with person's potential future ailments. Having the same information available to your doctor (or an AI, ha!) that could parse it objectively would make more sense than a single pharma company. Does anyone really think that GSK is going to suggest…

Let's not forget the massive extortion going on with drug prices as well. Also, there seems to be an issue these days with having enough independent replication of results by people who are not on company payrolls, or with selective publication of only positive results. Handing that data to one company is likely not going to result in reliable science by itself.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#62

Post by searine »

aaavl2821 wrote: post #52
TrainedMonkey wrote: post #3

Make no mistake about what is happening here. GSK is buying access to all of the genetic data that 23andMe has. This is why I am wary to use any 23andMe type of service. "The partners plan to use 23andMe’s data to jointly discover drug targets." They will claim all kinds of protections of course, but it is only a matter of time until genetic data starts being resold.

Using genetic data to find new drugs strikes me as a very good use of this data. Medical data is essential to the process of finding new drugs and treating patients and is highly regulated. I think you're right to be concerned about sharing of genetic data, but conflating facebook / google data sharing practices with medical data sharing is not appropriate If the concern is that 23and me may bring the google / FB app…

Agreed.

People underestimate how excruciating it is to collect large sample-sizes of genetic data.

The database 23andMe has is so stupidly valuable because 1. the sequencing is already done (and paid for) and 2. They can follow up with surveys electronically.

This kind of voluntary ancestry service will probably be the only way we will ever be able to collect the millions of samples needed for powered WGS GWAS analysis.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#63

Post by paxy »

bertil wrote: post #50

Is anyone able to assess the quality of information security at GSK? I would expect reasonably protective InfoSec from 23&Me because of their close ties to Google, but GSK feels like a company too large to care, and without enough hackers at the top to be worried. I was taken aback by 23&Me’s anti-deletion contract, but with good security, I only have them to fear. If someone less scrupulous can access it, then I dep…

They already deal with HIPAA compliance, so that's some reassurance.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#64

Post by jgust »

DanBC wrote: post #20
stanfordkid wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is that a bad thing? Wouldn't want it popping up while I'm looking for dinner recipes, but it's a hell of a lot more useful than shoe ads. It needs to be deeply regulated -- but most ads indicating health benefits already are .

Because over-testing, over-diagnosis, and over-treatment are all associated with harm. People bang on about early intervention, and it's useful for some stuff, but for a lot of stuff there's no evidence of a reduction in all cause mortality.

Not to mention that the majority of modern pharmaceuticals are focused on treating symptoms instead of causes. Insert argument about sick people being more profitable, etc.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#66

Post by dekhn »

TrainedMonkey wrote: post #3

Make no mistake about what is happening here. GSK is buying access to all of the genetic data that 23andMe has. This is why I am wary to use any 23andMe type of service. "The partners plan to use 23andMe’s data to jointly discover drug targets." They will claim all kinds of protections of course, but it is only a matter of time until genetic data starts being resold.

You agreed to that when you signed up!

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#67

Post by ironjunkie »

I don't want to spread FUD but why would ANYONE in their right mind give their DNA to a company in Silicon Valley that is explicitely using Google as a model for Data privacy ? (The founder of 23AndMe is the ex-wife of Google founder).

Even worse, people are actually PAYING quite a lot to get the privilege of having that company playing with your most private data.

This field needs to be heavily regulated. In 20 years we will be able to extract all type of crazy information from DNA and it might be our biggest liability if it is shared across private companies. This will truly be the dystopian future, in which every business will make a decision based on your public DNA profile.

As everything in Silicon Valley, they are hiding behind the fact that it can be used to make "The world a better place" and cure sone diseases. It should be clear what the end goal is though.

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#68

Post by ironjunkie »

bertil wrote: post #50

Is anyone able to assess the quality of information security at GSK? I would expect reasonably protective InfoSec from 23&Me because of their close ties to Google, but GSK feels like a company too large to care, and without enough hackers at the top to be worried. I was taken aback by 23&Me’s anti-deletion contract, but with good security, I only have them to fear. If someone less scrupulous can access it, then I dep…

I have more faith in a company such as GSK that takes data and privacy seriously than a company like 23&Me running mostly by silicon valley Kids that "Go fast and break things".

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#69

Post by binarymax »

searine wrote: post #62
aaavl2821 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using genetic data to find new drugs strikes me as a very good use of this data. Medical data is essential to the process of finding new drugs and treating patients and is highly regulated. I think you're right to be concerned about sharing of genetic data, but conflating facebook / google data sharing practices with medical data sharing is not appropriate If the concern is that 23and me may bring the google / FB app…

Agreed. People underestimate how excruciating it is to collect large sample-sizes of genetic data. The database 23andMe has is so stupidly valuable because 1. the sequencing is already done (and paid for) and 2. They can follow up with surveys electronically. This kind of voluntary ancestry service will probably be the only way we will ever be able to collect the millions of samples needed for powered WGS GWAS analys…

Given the time and cost associated with getting the data and having it in a consistent and usable format, $300MM seems like a huge bargain!

Re: GlaxoSmithKline makes $300M investment in 23andMe, forms 50-50 R&D pact

#70

Post by jonknee »

searine wrote: post #55
bmmayer1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> genetic data starts being resold Or hacked.

Honest question. What is a hacker going to do with my genetic data? What threat does having my medical predispositions publicly available have? Is the hacker going to call me up and suggest I start taking high blood pressure medication?

It's probably not the juiciest target, but I could see intelligence agencies wanting it. Combine it with the OPM hack of all security clearances and you could in theory use it to find family members of spies, people in high positions who have secret children, etc etc. Imagine if you had Trump's DNA and could then search a massive database to find out if he has any kids we don't know about...
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