23andMe Gives Pfizer DNA Data as Startup Seeks Growth

Jan. 12 (Bloomberg) -- 23andMe Director of Business Development Emily Drabant Conley discusses her companys collaboration with Pfizer to help find new targets to treat disease and to design clinical trials. She speaks on "Bloomberg West." (Source: Bloomberg)

23andMe Inc., the genetic-testing startup backed by Google Inc. (GOOG), is sharing DNA data on about 650,000 individuals with Pfizer Inc. (PFE), to help find new targets to treat disease and to design clinical trials.

The collaboration with Pfizer is the broadest announced so far in 23andMes ambitious plan to become a repository for humanitys genetic makeup, and to turn data gathered from $99 saliva tests sold to consumers into multimillion-dollar deals with drugmakers.

The agreement unveiled today gives the U.S.s largest drugmaker access to anonymous, aggregated information from consumers who bought 23andMes test over the past seven years to learn about their own genetic histories. It includes only people who agreed to let their data be used in research. Pfizer and 23andMe declined to give the deals value.

Related: 23andme Aims to End FDA Standoff This Year After Public Shaming

The Silicon Valley startup, named for the 23 pairs of chromosomes in human cells, is betting its growing troves of genetic data will prove essential to drug companies, medical researchers and even health and wellness companies.

Even as it seeks to expand its consumer tests around the world, the company is repairing relations with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. An agency ruling in late 2013 left 23andMe unable to sell health analyses from the saliva tests.

Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and chief executive officer of 23andMe Inc., speaks during a Bloomberg Television interview in San Francisco, California, on Oct. 9, 2014. Close

Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and chief executive officer of 23andMe Inc., speaks during a... Read More

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23andMe Gives Pfizer DNA Data as Startup Seeks Growth