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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

#151

Post by infodroid »

jryan49 wrote: post #126
joering2 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you EVEN read the title?? They are not sharing this information with private entity aka. opt-in/out. They made partnership research & development agreement in with GSK with invest over $300MM. 23and me is not sharing our data outside their fences BUT this agreement will let them bring GSK into their playground and do all sorts of stuff with your DNA. Worst case they will just buy the whole 23andMe as a company a…

It was made quite clear in the agreement that they cannot use data for research if you opt-out, even inside their own company. So you're saying any agreement someone has already made with 23andme in regards to their data usage has become null and void because of this investment? And would become if they were bought by another company?

It doesnt really matter whether you opted in or out. In the end, all that matters is whether the projected profits from abusing your data exceed the projected legal costs of doing do.

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

#152

Post by cloverich »

ralston wrote: post #127
reaperducer wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using genetic data to find new drugs strikes me as a very good use of this data. Selling it to anyone who pays the price seems like a bad idea. Which is inevitably what will happen here the next time the company needs to "maximize shareholder value" by "utilizing its assets to their full revenue potential." Next thing you know, I end up paying higher insurance rates because some distant relative I don't know is predi…

Bingo. > "maximize shareholder value" > "utilizing its assets to their full revenue potential." That's quite literally all that needs to be said here. How people fail to see the downside(s) to a large, multi-national, for-profit, shareholder-value-maximizing corporation, having access to (quite literally) their most sensitive information is simply beyond me. What do people expect GSK to say? "We plan to immediately r…

Do you have some examples? I'm not super well informed but 300M seems like a pretty small investment, given a single drug could cost >500M to produce and yield 10B+ in _yearly_ revenue. I'm not claiming one's genetic data is perfectly safe with any company, but that a for profit drug company would use it primarily for drug research seems reasonably sound. In some aspects, I'd expect they'd even have a vested interest in keeping it secure from other drug companies.

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

#153

Post by toomuchtodo »

whatshisface wrote: post #150
toomuchtodo wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I cared about privacy I wouldn’t have had 23andme and the Personal Genome Project do my genotyping. While it may affect me negatively in the future, the net positive (in aggregate with all participants) will exceed that negative value. I’m dead in the long run regardless, and would rather find every way I can be impactful with the time I have left, even in these small ways.

Have you considered the impact on your relatives and descendants? They may care more about their privacy than you care about yours, and when you get sequenced they don't have a choice.

I have considered the ethical issues. Not my problem, it’s my DNA.

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

#154

Post by whatshisface »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #153
whatshisface wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the impact on your relatives and descendants? They may care more about their privacy than you care about yours, and when you get sequenced they don't have a choice.

I have considered the ethical issues. Not my problem, it’s my DNA.

The problem is, it's also theirs. Using the insurance example, even if you live in a country with socialized healthcare someone down or across the line from you may not. Indeed, you would be putting them at risk for all of the bad things to do with DNA that will be or were invented from fifty years ago until the computers forget your genome, without their consent, and unless they received a copy of your results without their benefit!

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

#155

Post by toomuchtodo »

whatshisface wrote: post #154
toomuchtodo wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have considered the ethical issues. Not my problem, it’s my DNA.

The problem is, it's also theirs. Using the insurance example, even if you live in a country with socialized healthcare someone down or across the line from you may not. Indeed, you would be putting them at risk for all of the bad things to do with DNA that will be or were invented from fifty years ago until the computers forget your genome, without their consent, and unless they received a copy of your results witho…

It’s a legitimate concern that requires constant vigilance of an educated and engaged electorate. Otherwise we’ll end up paralyzed with anxiety of what if vs progress.

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

#156

Post by dilippkumar »

mcculley wrote: post #23
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.

I don't understand these concerns. I have published my data from 23andMe ( https://enki.org/2017/10/17/publishing-my-genome/ ) ( https://github.com/mcculley/genes-genes ). Can you share what you think the bad outcomes would be? What am I missing? Edit: As people bring up the insurance risk, yes I did consider that and mention it in my post. I am personally not concerned about it and think the advantages outweigh the…

This talk[0] makes a very good case for why keeping your DNA a secret is a good idea. It's also probably the only talk at defcon that I've watched that has scared the hell out of me.

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKQDSgBHPfY

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

#157

Post by mcculley »

whatshisface wrote: post #148
mcculley wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually think that basic health care should be covered by taxpayers and we should not have private insurance companies profiting in that space. As for your DNA: Do you take the precautions of the protagonist in Gattaca? How do you avoid leaving DNA samples in public places? How long before drones/bots/Roombas are hoovering this up at the behest of some VC?

> I actually think that basic health care should be covered by taxpayers and we should not have private insurance companies profiting in that space. What happens when someone gets their genetic information released in a country with public healthcare, and then moves to a country with private healthcare?

I expect that to be an adverse and inevitable outcome.

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

#158

Post by meow81 »

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 must opt in to share your data for research. Each 23andme user has a choice.

email I received from 23andme today. "Our top priority is you, the customer, and empowering you with the options to participate in research. As always, you choose whether or not to participate in research. You can choose to opt-in or opt-out at any time."

If you're not a customer, might not want to throw around assumptions.

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

#159

Post by CodyReichert »

aaavl2821 wrote: post #106
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some digging by a lay-idiot >> The Regeneron Genetics Center (RGC) has built one of the world’s most comprehensive genetics databases, pairing the sequenced exomes and de-identified electronic health records of more than 300,000 people so far. https://www.regeneron.com/genetics-center https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/23andMe - users 5 million My understanding is that you are saying 23andme's 5 million records are less…

I don't really know too much about the amount of clinical data 23andme collects and I don't know what SNP data they collect, so I can't say with certainty that they're less valuable than RGC, but I'd guess they are My argument: If you are exploring genomic datasets to find new potential drug targets, then what you really want as the output are single genes that are very strongly associated with dramatic phenotypes. D…

Very well explained, thanks

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

#160

Post by guiambros »

cloverich wrote: post #152
ralston wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bingo. > "maximize shareholder value" > "utilizing its assets to their full revenue potential." That's quite literally all that needs to be said here. How people fail to see the downside(s) to a large, multi-national, for-profit, shareholder-value-maximizing corporation, having access to (quite literally) their most sensitive information is simply beyond me. What do people expect GSK to say? "We plan to immediately r…

Do you have some examples? I'm not super well informed but 300M seems like a pretty small investment, given a single drug could cost >500M to produce and yield 10B+ in _yearly_ revenue. I'm not claiming one's genetic data is perfectly safe with any company, but that a for profit drug company would use it primarily for drug research seems reasonably sound. In some aspects, I'd expect they'd even have a vested interest…

Couldn't agree more. As someone who has his genetic profile with 23andme (as well as my kids, wife, parents, etc), I'm actually looking forward to someone like GSK to come in and use my genetic data to accelerate the discovery of new drugs.

It's shocking that so much genetic data is available, and we're barely scratching the surface, and using for fancy graphs and genealogy trees. We could be finding the cure for real diseases, and improving the lives of millions of people.

Yes, of course the pharma companies will milk the new drugs for the next couple of decades, until they lose the patent, yadda yadda, but at least we're making progress faster. Much better than the alternative - which is to wait decades for the discovery, AND wait more decades for the patents to expire...

Regarding privacy concerns, that's the least of my worries. The money available selling my genetic data (to, say, insurance companies), and the scrutiny and regulation they'd face (in many cases it'd be outright illegal - e.g., minors) is so massive that it'd be stupid to even try. There's a lot more money to be made from the exact same insurance companies by selling overpriced drugs to sick patients with health insurance.

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