Anatomy of the 23andMe fall and implications for consumer genomics

anatomy-of-the-23andme-fall-and-implications-for-consumer-genomics
  • Comment
  • Published:

Nature Biotechnology (2025)Cite this article

Subjects

23andMe’s bankruptcy serves as a moment of reflection for the direct-to-consumer (DTC) genomics industry. We analyzed 23andMe financial data and business practices to reveal the factors behind the fall of the company, once valued at US $6 billion and now being considered for acquisition by Regeneron for merely $250 million. Key challenges faced by 23andMe in monetizing its genomic data reveal that this information, at least in a typical DTC setting, is simply not worth that much.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

$32.99 / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

$209.00 per year

only $17.42 per issue

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Key performance indicators of 23andMe since going public in 2021.

References

  1. Lee, S. S.-J. & Crawley, L. Am. J. Bioeth. 9, 35–44 (2009).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Davies, K. The $1,000 Genome: The Revolution in DNA Sequencing and the New Era of Personalized Medicine (Simon and Schuster, 2015).

  3. Larkin, L. DNA tests. The DNA Geek https://thednageek.com/dna-tests/ (2023).

  4. Nat. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.2805 (2014).

  5. Natarajan, P. et al. Circulation 135, 2091–2101 (2017).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Brown, S. N., Jouni, H., Marroush, T. S. & Kullo, I. J. Circ. Cardiovasc. Genet. 10, e001613 (2017).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  7. Polygenic Risk Score Task Force of the International Common Disease Alliance. et al. Nat. Med. 27, 1876–1884 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Minikel, E. V., Painter, J. L., Dong, C. C. & Nelson, M. R. Nature 629, 624–629 (2024).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  9. Phares, S., Phillip, K. & Trusheim, M. Nat. Rev. Drug Discov. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41573-025-00036-8 (2025).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Sudlow, C. et al. PLoS Med. 12, e1001779 (2015).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Sheridan, C. Nat. Biotechnol. 31, 87–88 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Benjamin, J. S. et al. Cancer Res. Commun. 5, 477–496 (2025).

    Article  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  13. Fenaux, J. et al. Oncoimmunology 12, 2217737 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  14. Dorfman, R. Nat. Biotechnol. 31, 785–786 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Wojcicki, A. Nat. Biotechnol. 31, 1075–1076 (2013).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Khan, R. & Mittelman, D. Genome Biol. 14, 139 (2013).

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eleven Therapeutics, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Yaniv Erlich

  2. WhiteLab Genomics, Paris, France

    Dina Zielinski

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yaniv Erlich or Dina Zielinski.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Y.E. is an employee and shareholder of Eleven Therapeutics, an RNA Therapeutic start-up. D.Z. is an employee and shareholder of WhiteLab Genomics, a gene and cell therapy company.

Supplementary information

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Erlich, Y., Zielinski, D. Anatomy of the 23andMe fall and implications for consumer genomics. Nat Biotechnol (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02683-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-025-02683-z