There’s a lot of confusion about 23andMe: Is the company still in business? Is it now owned by Regeneron, the biotech company that once tried to buy it? Are its genetic testing services still available for sale? And if you are a customer, what happens to your data? It’s been a year since 23andMe entered Chapter 11 following a series of financial and regulatory misfortunes. Last summer, in bankruptcy court, the company’s founder and former CEO, Anne Wojcicki, won a bidding war against Regeneron and acquired 23andMe assetsthe most important is the genetic data of millions of users, for 305 million dollars. The company is now owned by TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit Wojcicki founded to take 23andMe private.
Its nonprofit status means 23andMe is now more focused on making a positive impact than selling tests. “We have the same mission, in many ways, and the same business, but now it has a scientific impact,” Wojcicki told the Observer at the Semafor World Economy conference in Washington DC last week. “Everything we do now is because of that base impact angle.”
TTAM is a non-profit medical research organization, which means it is not bound by the 5 percent annual fee rule required of charities like the Gates Foundation. Instead, it should continue to participate in medical research. The structure also adds a layer to protect user data. If TTAM were to close, it wouldn’t just sell the data to, say, a hedge fund; the assets must be transferred to another non-profit organization with a similar mission. During congressional testimony last year, Wojcicki also promised not to sell data to China or any organization owned by a foreign enemy.
At its peak, 23andMe was valued at $6 billion when it went public in 2021. By the time it filed for bankruptcy, its market value had dropped to about $20 million. A major change occurred in late 2023, when the company suffered a data breach that ultimately affected nearly seven million users, including the relatives of more than 10,000 users whose accounts were directly compromised. The incident sparked a “remove 23andMe” campaign, prompting about 2 million users (out of 15 million) to leave the platform before the reorganization.
“Part of the reason we became a nonprofit was to protect data forever,” Wojcicki said. “Moving forward as a non-profit organization, it gives it a new level of stability.”
Without losing the user, you insist that customers retain control over their data. “Although it has been painful in the past few years, what we are proud of is that we have honored our word by ensuring that customers always have a choice,” he said.
TTAM is funded by 23andMe’s revenue and outside funding, and Wojcicki said it is on track to cover research costs with revenue alone. The organization is controlled by a board with close ties to Wojcicki and the biotech world, including Stephen Quake, head of science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative; his sister Janet Wojcicki, professor of epidemiology at UCSF; His family office chief Stephen Magowan; and biotech CEO Brad Margus.
Research focus
Earlier this month, 23andMe published a major study in a scientific journal The environment in genetic predictors of GLP-1 weight loss drugs. The study provides the first genetic evidence to explain why people respond differently to drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Analyzing data from more than 27,000 participants, researchers identified genetic markers linked to both weight loss success and risk of serious side effects.
This type of scientific contribution is now the main focus of the company. Medical research is notoriously slow and slow. 23andMe is trying to disrupt that model by building what Wojcicki describes as “a huge, continuous, endless research group where you can ask all kinds of questions.” Even when recruiting narrowly defined groups—for example, only people with Parkinson’s—the company asks them many questions, from serious conditions like cancer to specifics like sneezing in response to sunlight. “We ask all kinds of questions, and because we have all this information—and 13 million people participating—you can do research as if it were a Google query,” he said during an interview last week.
Wojcicki’s sister, former YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, died in August 2024 at the age of 56 after a two-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer. “He was very clear that you had to do whatever you could with my lung cancer data,” Wojcicki said. “So we want to show anything that’s useful to our customers.” He emphasized that 23andMe does not sell user data and only shares scientific information with partners.
“I have two important goals,” said Wojcicki. “First, that everyone in the world can benefit from genetic testing. Everyone should know their genetic information. And second, to build the largest open source research platform in the world so that we can answer important questions quickly and for very little money.”
