New auction for 23andMe sought with $305m bid from ex-CEO

Bankrupt genetic testing company 23andMe has said it wants to start a new round of bidding for its business after receiving a $305 million offer from a group led by founder and former chief executive Anne Wojcicki.

The offer by Wojcicki's non-profit organisation TTAM Research Institute tops an earlier $256 million bid from Regeneron, which won the earlier auction process and was hoping to complete the takeover in the third quarter of this year.

It was revealed earlier this week that Wojcicki had petitioned the judge in 23andMe's bankruptcy proceedings to allow a new auction, claiming that the earlier bidding process was biased in favour of Regeneron because her TTAM-led bid had been capped at $250 million, due to concerns about the group's financial "wherewithal."

According to Bloomberg, the new auction has been launched as a compromise between all three parties and comes after a public hearing in the bankruptcy court held yesterday in front of Judge Brian Walsh. It suggests Regeneron has already indicated it is able to counter with a $315 million bid, and that each party will be able to come back to the table with one additional offer.

However, Regeneron has said it wants a $10 million break-up fee if 23andMe ends up being taken back into ownership by Wojcicki, according to court documents.

The battle for ownership of 23andMe comes amid concerns about the fate of the DNA information on more than 14 million people who sent in saliva samples to get an insight into their health and ancestry, of whom more than three-quarters gave consent for the data to be used for research purposes.

Both Regeneron and TTAM have said they will comply with 23andMe's existing policies on the privacy, security and ethical use of customer data, but the company's bankruptcy has focused attention on the reality that relatively few US states have legal protections for this type of information.

The attorney general of California, a state which has enacted data protection laws governing genetic information, has recommended that customers ask the company to delete their records and destroy samples held in 23andMe's biobank of DNA samples and related data, or at least opt out of data sharing.

Added to that, 23andMe suffered a massive data breach in 2023 that resulted in information from about 7 million people being exposed. It was forced to pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit last year alleging it had failed to protect customers' privacy after a data breach.