Ancestry DNA Testing Websites Are the Feds

Do not give your genetic material to them

Last week, DNA testing company 23AndMe announced that it sold the rights to a drug it developed using its database of customers’ DNA to the Spanish pharmaceutical company Almirall. 23AndMe has sold over 10 million of its DNA testing kits to consumers looking to learn more about their ancestry and health predispositions. Customers submit a sample of their DNA, which the company tests to provide the information. The revelation of the drug development has raised anew concerns about the ethics of the business model of ancestry DNA testing companies. How many of the people who agreed to have their DNA profiles put in these companies’ databases understand how that information may be used? The terms and conditions and related agreements for these websites are so convoluted that they turn around lawyers, who wrestle with those issues for a living.

The sale of DNA testing kits was never intended to be the long­­­-term profit driver for 23AndMe, AncestryDNA (the two largest ancestry websites) and similar enterprises. The DNA samples gathered are being collected to construct databases. The databases and the information that can be gleaned from them are what’s valuable. When people provide biological samples that will be used in private medical research, they are usually paid. Perhaps not…