{"id":159875,"date":"2025-06-05T09:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-05T09:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/159875\/"},"modified":"2025-06-05T09:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-06-05T09:40:12","slug":"genetic-testing-company-23andme-to-re-auction-over-15-million-customers-dna-data-with-bid-starting-at-305mn-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/159875\/","title":{"rendered":"Genetic testing company 23andMe to re-auction over 15 million customers’ DNA data with bid starting at $305mn \u2014 Details"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bankrupt genetic analysis company 23andMe<\/a> said it will conduct a second auction for its DNA data cache, with an opening bid of $305 million from former CEO Anne Wojcicki, Bloomberg reported.<\/p>\n

23andMe built its fame by providing medical and ancestry-related genetic testing to over 15 million customers. It has nearly 5,50,000 subscribers, but filed for bankruptcy<\/a> saying this was not enough to keep the business afloat, the report added.<\/p>\n

Why a second auction by 23andMe?<\/p>\n

Notably, this new offer is around $50 million higher than the last bid (which was $256 million) won by Regeneron<\/a> Pharmaceuticals in May 2025. The result of that auction, conducted over three days, was challenged by Wojcicki, who argued that bidding was unfairly closed to favor Regeneron.<\/p>\n

This auction comes as a compromise between the three parties, after Wojcicki, Regeneron and 23andMe attended a hearing in the matter at a federal court in St Louis on June 4, as per the publication.<\/p>\n

23andMe selling DNA data \u2014 Court hearing details<\/p>\n

Hearing the case, US Bankruptcy Judge Brian Walsh asked Regeneron and 23andMe to justify the limits they wanted to set for the second auction process.<\/p>\n

Customers, officials raise alarm over data protection<\/p>\n

Amid the bankruptcy and auction news, a host of 23andMe’s customers and government officials have raised an alarm over protection and security of the years of DNA data held by the company.<\/p>\n

The business worked by collecting saliva samples from customers, which was used to extract DNA and then trace one’s ancestry or certain health-related genetic traits. The mail-back saliva test cost less than $200.<\/p>\n

Both Regeneron and Wojcicki have pledged<\/a> to comply with 23andMe’s privacy policy, based on which customers had submitted their samples. The policy allows customers to get their personal information deleted on request.<\/p>\n

The pioneering company on March 23, 2025, said that it had \u201cfiled a voluntary petition for reorganisation\u201d with a state bankruptcy court in Missouri, USA.<\/p>\n

Notably, just months before 23andMe declared backruptcy<\/a>, and tried to attact buyers, it was hit with a class-action lawsuit due to a 2023 data breach that gave hackers access to customer information. Settlement from those claims is also likely to be addressed during the bankruptcy process, the report said.<\/p>\n

(With inputs from Bloomberg)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bankrupt genetic analysis company 23andMe said it will conduct a second auction for its DNA data cache, with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[21326,50769,39760,15750,903,3453,67513,67515,31769,8747,267,10054,67516,67514,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-159875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-23andme","9":"tag-ancestry","10":"tag-anne-wojcicki","11":"tag-auction","12":"tag-bankruptcy","13":"tag-data-security","14":"tag-dna-data","15":"tag-dna-data-auction","16":"tag-genetic-data","17":"tag-genetic-testing","18":"tag-genetics","19":"tag-personal-data","20":"tag-privacy-concerns","21":"tag-regeneron","22":"tag-science","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114630100490605055","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}