The news: Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and former CEO of 23andMe, is set to recoup control of the company after outbidding Regeneron Pharmaceuticals in a bankruptcy auction. The final price of $305 million, which topped Regeneron’s previous bid of $265 million, is being paid by Wojcicki via a nonprofit public benefit corporation that she created called the TTAM Research Institute. A court will still need to give final approval of the deal.

Why it matters: Wojcicki is essentially using her own money to buy back 23andMe, which raises the question of why the genetic testing company will succeed when it previously failed under the same leader.

• Wojcicki wasn’t able to expand the company beyond its popular DNA testing kits, which are a one-time purchase for consumers.
• Efforts to move into drug development and telehealth never paid off.
• Wojcicki previously tried to take 23andMe private, but a strategic disagreement with the board last year drove all of its members to resign.
• The company never turned a profit and recorded a net loss of $667 million in fiscal year 2024 before going bankrupt.
• A 2023 data breach exposed the personal information of about 7 million customers and resulted in a $30 million class-action lawsuit.

Regeneron, on the other hand, is an established biotech company and likely would have a better shot at turning 23andMe around. Regeneron has several FDA-approved medications and experience collaborating with pharma companies—it would have been in a good position to use millions of people’s genetic data for drug discovery, development, and commercialization. For context, Regeneron declined the opportunity to top TTAM’s offer.

Yes, and: Some 2 million people, or 15% of the company’s customers, have requested that their data be deleted from the platform following 23andMe’s bankruptcy filing. Many more may follow if Wojcicki is granted the purchase.

Our take: 23andMe will have a brand reputation problem assuming Wojcicki regains control. The company’s best path forward, considering past mistakes, is tapping into new consumer health and wellness categories rather than enterprise partnerships with pharma.

Initial steps 23andMe can take to rebuild trust with consumers:

• Be transparent about how the company plans to use customer data
• Show people how they can wipe their information from the system if they choose
• Lay out plans to reduce the likelihood of another cybersecurity breach

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Not a subscriber? Click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.