Regeneron wins an offer to buy 23andm by bankruptcy

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology company with a long history of research in large -scale genetics, plans to buy the 23andme DNA testing company out of bankruptcy, announcing on Monday that it was appointed tenderer selected in a public auction by the court.

Regeneron’s offer, which is always subject to legal and regulatory approvals, is a bet that it can do what 23andm could not and exploit the troves of genetic data that the test company collects to discover new targets of drugs. Regeneron plans to continue the genome services of consumers of 23 and without interruption – a task made easier by its decade of experience sequencing the DNA of millions of people through its genetic center.

“We believe that we can help 23 and 23 to deliver and rely on their mission to help people interested in learning their own DNA and how to improve their personal health, while promoting Regeneron’s efforts to use large-scale genetic research to improve the way society treats and prevents illness as a whole,” said George Yancopoulos, co-founder of Regeneron and chief scientist.

Under the proposed agreement, Regeneron will pay $ 256 million to acquire “almost all” of the 23andme assets, including its health service and its personal genome research service. He will also offer jobs to all employees in these commercial units.

The purchase would not include the Télésanté Lemonaid Health company, which 23andm will end.

Regeneron expects the agreement to end in the third quarter, assuming that it obtains all the necessary approvals. A mediator appointed by the bankruptcy court will examine the transaction to assess how it could affect the privacy of people who previously used 23andm to sequence their genome. A report of this examination is due to the court by June 10 and a hearing is set for June 17.

In a statement, Aris Baras, head of the Regeneron Genetics Center, said that the company “is committed to protecting the 23andme data set with our high confidentiality standards, security and ethical data surveillance and will advance its full potential to improve human health.”

The Center, which Regeneron launched in 2013, revealed more than two dozen drug targets by painting in its genome sequencing database. Among them, genetic mutations associated with a lower risk of obesity and liver disease, as well as a specific variant of the BRCA gene linked to breast and ovary cancers.

The bankruptcy sale is a silent end for a company which, at its peak, was worth around 6 billion dollars. Co-founded by Anne Wojcicki in 2006, the company built a brand which has become synonymous with personal DNA tests. But he has always had ambitions to use this data to develop drugs, inserting an alliance of R&D with GSK in 2018, then later building his own pipeline of experimental drugs.

The past few years have been more difficult on 23 and however. The drop in demand for consumer tests has eroded its financial health and the course of action to the point that Wojcicki tried to put the private enterprise. Its offer was rejected by the board of directors, which members resigned later to avoid a “difference in prolonged and entertaining vision” with Wojcicki.

After having dismissed 40% of its staff in November, the company deposited a bankruptcy of chapter 11 in March.