Overview

• Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia have sued in bankruptcy court to prevent 23andMe from selling genetic data without the express consent of roughly 15 million users.
• 23andMe entered Chapter 11 in March and its proposed sale of assets, including DNA profiles and health records, awaits judge approval.
• Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has offered $256 million for the company while co-founder Anne Wojcicki’s TTAM Research Institute has lodged a $305 million bid after the auction was reopened.
• A court-appointed independent privacy ombudsman is reviewing how the sale could affect consumer data protections and will report back to the judge.
• Since the bankruptcy filing, about 1.9 million customers have requested deletion of their genetic information, and users retain the right to erase their data under 23andMe’s policy.