23andMe's Fall

Post by jonathankoren » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 6:14 PM UTC

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…

Post by stri8ed » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 6:21 PM UTC

westhanover wrote: post #140

rchaud wrote: post #24

This story makes 23andme sound like a non-fraud version of Theranos, with some of the same issues around business viability, dodging the FDA, relentless PR and funding from rich friends. If a healthcare startup get shout-outs from Oprah, SNL and branded Barbie dolls, is that a bad sign?

[flagged]

Post by nextos » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 6:23 PM UTC

carbocation wrote: post #146

nextos wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Post by vrc » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 6:29 PM UTC

jonathankoren wrote: post #171

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…

> This is a damning indictment of Wojcicki's management of the company. I mean she was leader of YouTube. Why wouldn't she be able to develop a drug development strategy based on genomics? But hey, rich people can do anything right?

Post by txru » Wed, Jan 31, 2024, 6:31 PM UTC

Tuna-Fish wrote: post #144

progbits wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 "…