Monday, the genetic pharmaceutical company Regeneron announced that it is buying genetic sequencing company 23andMe out of bankruptcy for $256 million. The purchase gives us a rough estimate for the current monetary value of a single person’s genetic data: $17.
Regeneron is a drug company that “intends to acquire 23andMe’s Personal Genome Service (PGS), Total Health and Research Services business lines, together with its Biobank and associated assets, for $256 million and for 23andMe to continue all consumer genome services uninterrupted,” the company said in a press release Monday. Regeneron is working on personalized medicine and new drug discovery, and the company itself has “sequenced the genetic information of nearly three million people in research studies,” it said. This means that Regeneron itself has the ability to perform DNA sequencing, and suggests that the critical thing that it is acquiring is 23andMe’s vast trove of genetic data.
The most recently available numbers show that 23andMe collected DNA from roughly 15 million people, meaning that 23andMe’s genetic data is worth roughly $17 per person. 23andMe does not perform full genome sequences. It instead does DNA genotyping, which looks at specific parts of the genome that tend to vary from person to person.
The sale to Regeneron means that the genetic data collected by 23andMe will likely be used for the development of new drugs, which felt like the most likely and perhaps best-case scenario for the company’s bankruptcy. In the past, genetic data companies have been sold to larger companies that explicitly make DNA forensics products for law enforcement. Regeneron said in the press release that it “intends to ensure compliance with 23andMe’s consumer privacy policies and applicable laws with respect to the treatment of customer data. As the successful bidder, Regeneron is prepared to detail the intended use of customer data and the privacy programs and security controls in place for review by a court-appointed, independent Customer Privacy Ombudsman and other interested parties.”
The sale price to Regeneron suggests that the overall monetary value of this type of data has decreased in recent years. In 2018, the drug giant GSK invested $300 million into 23andMe in exchange for the genetic data of 5 million people, which means it valued an individual’s genetic data at roughly $60. The massive private equity firm Blackstone bought Ancestry.com, a company that sequences genetic data but also has other parts of its business, for $4.7 billion in 2020.