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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

#161

Post by booleandilemma »

reaperducer wrote: post #124
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…

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…

Wouldn’t that violate HIPAA, or something?

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

#162

Post by guntars »

sk5t wrote: post #90
nradov wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the USA the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment. No one in politically powerful positions has seriously advocated for repealing the law. The insurance companies don't even dislike it because it creates a level playing field; since the market is competitive, even if they were allowed…

This is true for health insurance; not so for life insurance.

What’s wrong with a life insurance company getting a more accurate probability of me dying from some rare disease? Maybe my rates should be raised if there’s a higher risk of me kicking the bucket. This works both ways too - my DNA can reveal that I will likely live a long premium-paying life. Insurance companies make money by being accurate, not by under or overestimating the risks. If DNA helps them be more accurate, good, maybe you can receive some of that value from improved efficiency.

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

#163

Post by sk5t »

guntars wrote: post #162
sk5t wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true for health insurance; not so for life insurance.

What’s wrong with a life insurance company getting a more accurate probability of me dying from some rare disease? Maybe my rates should be raised if there’s a higher risk of me kicking the bucket. This works both ways too - my DNA can reveal that I will likely live a long premium-paying life. Insurance companies make money by being accurate, not by under or overestimating the risks. If DNA helps them be more accurat…

Well, shucks, why not apply the exact same argument to health insurance as well? Or even auto insurance?

While adverse selection is undeniably a tricky problem, the underlying raison d'etre is pooled risk, to help individuals and families mitigate catastrophic losses. Maybe you're all right with the prospect of future analyses condemning to uninsurability folks with rare combinations of alleles that turn out to be strongly deleterious. To me, this seems like breaking the regulated semi-statis between insurers and insureds, and like breaking the social contract more generally.

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

#164

Post by opportune »

colordrops wrote: post #129
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…

I'm sure at some point someone will figure out how to better target advertisements based on DNA. In fact I could think of a simple and obvious one - target based on race or sex. More advanced techniques would be to figure out what proclivities you might have, such as being easily addicted to certain substances and behaviors. Seems dangerous.

advertisers already do target based on race and sex, genetic data will simply increase the accuracy of making those classifications

While it's also possible that advertisers could use more sensitive information, such as a predisposition to gambling/obesity/alcoholism, the signal from DNA that an advertisement is likely to be effective is still probably weaker than a person's actual habits. A very unethical company could use DNA to know how to target to make "the first hit free", but I'd like to think that such egregious behavior would result in significant public backlash and possibly the introduction of regulations

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

#165

Post by strstr »

Severian wrote: post #59
dayvid wrote: post #24

I asked 23andMe if there was any way to delete my genetic data from their site after the Equifax hack news. From their response: "23andMe and our third party genotyping laboratory will retain Genetic Information, date of birth, and sex as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations, including the U.S. Federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), California Business and Professional…

Other than your DOB and sex, can you just provide a fake name/email and go from there? Only people I want to share my genetic info with is my family, and they know how to contact me.

Problem is that it’s easy to correlate dna data against each other and infer who you are (assuming some small number of relatives have also used the service). In fact, a find your relatives service is built in.

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

#166

Post by mattmanser »

sarabande wrote: post #78
ironjunkie wrote: post #67

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 year…

> 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). I don't think a former personal relationship indicates the respective companies operate the same way. > Even worse, people are actually PAYING quite a lot to get the privilege of having that company playing with y…

Fair enough, but in another thread 23andme have responded to someone and said they will never delete their DNA data, even if requested.

And claimed the laws are the ones preventing them from doing that.

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

#167

Post by bencollier49 »

this_user wrote: post #56
dayvid wrote: post #24

I asked 23andMe if there was any way to delete my genetic data from their site after the Equifax hack news. From their response: "23andMe and our third party genotyping laboratory will retain Genetic Information, date of birth, and sex as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations, including the U.S. Federal Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988 (CLIA), California Business and Professional…

You could use a EU-based competitor and then force them to delete the data through a GDPR request. Should work in theory, although I haven't tried it.

You should be able to force a deletion through GDPR in any case, if you're European; 23andme have a European office as well.

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

#168

Post by andai »

bencollier49 wrote: post #167
this_user wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could use a EU-based competitor and then force them to delete the data through a GDPR request. Should work in theory, although I haven't tried it.

You should be able to force a deletion through GDPR in any case, if you're European; 23andme have a European office as well.

[serious] But wouldn't they get deleted after being sold to the highest bidder?

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

#169

Post by kalleboo »

albertgoeswoof wrote: post #132
therealdrag0 wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should my DNA be private? I don't care at all about my DNA.

You will if you cant get insurance / welfare / a job / a loan because your DNA suggests that you are statistically a potential liability

Sure but what if I don't live in the corporatist dystopia that is the USA?

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

#170

Post by yters »

It's interesting that the ads target elderly people. It takes a relatively smaller number of elder customers to get at least partial DNA sequences for a larger swath of the population.

My personal conspiracy theory is all these biometric recognition (such as face) and DNA sequencing services are serving to compile a vast human identification database. With all the Intagraming, live streaming, voice listeners, etc. it becomes much easier to have mass surveillance. Someone is wanted by the FBI? Well, maybe he'll show up in a friend's daughter's Instagram selfie, or random tourist snapping pix, or Alexa listening into his friend's home. No more need for painstaking installation of covert surveillance to get the perp. Furthermore, with access and analysis of someone's online posts, this opens up the possibility to detect future crime. I bet there is big government money now for startups that can correlate a person across all these data sources.

Plus, this doesn't have to be in the government's hands. Dark web sellers have access to all this and more with all the data breaches. Such data can be used to compile lucrative targets for blackmailing or kidnapping, along with a pattern of life to make them easy to pick up.

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