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23andMe's Fall

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Re: 23andMe's Fall

#141

Post by hoistbypetard »

ilamont wrote: post #77

This is a damning indictment of Wojcicki's management of the company. Failed execution on the drug development strategy over 10+ years, lying about growth, pushing out the cofounder, never making a profit, hack that went undiscovered for months ... about the only area she's had success is raising money and that's in large part thanks to being a member of the Silicon Valley elite. If she can't convince her family, fri…

I do too. That's why I've refused to use the kits I've been gifted... I assumed the fallback here was to build up a cache of data to sell.

I'd be nice if they could be prevented from doing that, possibly by the court system.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#142

Post by ProjectArcturis »

BasilPH wrote: post #92

> As an added security measure, we have temporarily disabled the ability to download your raw genetic data. We hope to re-enable this ability soon, and we appreciate your patience. After reading this article I decided to download my data in case they go under. Was greeted with this message on the relevant page. Does anybody have some insight if this is related to the data breach or something else?

I believe under HIPAA, you have the right to access any of your medical data. If you really want your data, I would get a lawyer to write a nasty letter to them demanding it.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#143

Post by nextos »

carbocation wrote: post #135
timy2shoes wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My suspicion has been that SNP array data is not that useful for drug discovery. They’re targeting the most common/variable SNPs, which I suspect don’t have a large health effect (except for maybe late in life, otherwise how would they get passed down). I would suspect the more valuable targets would be rarer, or arise de novo (as is common in cancer, eg driver mutations).

The effect size of common SNPs is not informative about the effect of drugging their related genes. For example, the common variants near HMG-CoA reductase have very small but significant (confidently nonzero) effects. Yet drugging HMG-CoA reductase can reduce LDL cholesterol by ~40-50% (statins).

deCODE Genetics, whose history is very interesting and worth reading [1], was bought by Amgen based on this premise.

Note, however, that SNPs like the one you pointed out are relatively infrequent. Amgen was expecting a two digit % improvement in their pharma pipeline by using GWAS insights.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCODE_genetics

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#144

Post by Tuna-Fish »

progbits wrote: post #95
ilamont wrote: post #77

This is a damning indictment of Wojcicki's management of the company. Failed execution on the drug development strategy over 10+ years, lying about growth, pushing out the cofounder, never making a profit, hack that went undiscovered for months ... about the only area she's had success is raising money and that's in large part thanks to being a member of the Silicon Valley elite. If she can't convince her family, fri…

If they go bankrupt they should destroy all the data but of course they will rather sell it to recover at least a bit of money.

If they file for bankruptcy, they cannot legally destroy the data. The data is a salable asset, the law requires them to preserve it so that it can be sold and the money returned to creditors. And many of the promises they have given about it's use can and will be broken by the trustees dissolving the company.

The thing you need to consider when you give data to a company is not "will these people misuse this", but "once these guys go bankrupt and sell the data to the highest bidder, can it be misused?". See, for example, how if your company holds a large mailing list, it will typically be sold to a spam operation for a few bucks.

The minimum standard for giving serious personal information, like your DNA, to a company needs to be that the company receives a limited-time license to handle the data for the purposes they need to provide the service, and absolutely nothing more.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#145

Post by [deleted] »

kjellsbells wrote: post #110

Ah, 23andMe, the Experian of DNA. Look, I give her great credit for the women in STEM thing, her perseverance in the light of obstacles, and making a 10$ lab kit worth $399 to buyers. But to not understand how far actors would go to get hold of that data, to not understand that the drug industry is brutal because humans are poorly-understood meatsacks (see: anything by Derek Lowe), well, seems like that Yale educatio…

[deleted]

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#146

Post by carbocation »

nextos wrote: post #143
carbocation wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The effect size of common SNPs is not informative about the effect of drugging their related genes. For example, the common variants near HMG-CoA reductase have very small but significant (confidently nonzero) effects. Yet drugging HMG-CoA reductase can reduce LDL cholesterol by ~40-50% (statins).

deCODE Genetics, whose history is very interesting and worth reading [1], was bought by Amgen based on this premise. Note, however, that SNPs like the one you pointed out are relatively infrequent. Amgen was expecting a two digit % improvement in their pharma pipeline by using GWAS insights. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeCODE_genetics

> Note, however, that SNPs like the one you pointed out are relatively infrequent.

If you mean that SNPs with small effect sizes don't always point to useful drug targets with big druggable effects, that is possible, but this remains an open question and is the subject of intensive research right now.

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#148

Post by astrange »

hoistbypetard wrote: post #141
ilamont wrote: post #77

This is a damning indictment of Wojcicki's management of the company. Failed execution on the drug development strategy over 10+ years, lying about growth, pushing out the cofounder, never making a profit, hack that went undiscovered for months ... about the only area she's had success is raising money and that's in large part thanks to being a member of the Silicon Valley elite. If she can't convince her family, fri…

I do too. That's why I've refused to use the kits I've been gifted... I assumed the fallback here was to build up a cache of data to sell. I'd be nice if they could be prevented from doing that, possibly by the court system.

Selling it is not a problem for the same reason they can't make a profit from it. It's not worth much.

(They do have valuable data, but it's the survey answers and friend and family connections. Nobody really cares you have a G at SNP 12213244243.)

Re: 23andMe's Fall

#150

Post by AlbertCory »

> To create a recurring revenue stream from the tests, Wojcicki has pivoted to subscriptions.

Just in case, you know, your DNA changes /s

I attended Ann's talk at Google when she was still with Sergey. They had spit kits in case anyone wanted to do it on the spot (I didn't).

When President Clinton announced the completion of the human genome project, he looked forward to all the wonderful drugs that would follow therefrom. Then I took a number of extension classes in molecular biology and drug discovery, and learned from the people who actually do it that DNA information is often helpful, but it's not a silver bullet.

> Sequoia, which invested $145 million in 23andMe, still holds all its shares, he said. Today they are worth $18 million.

.. and this is why those VCs get the big bucks /s

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