23andMe Holding Co. is an American personal genomics and biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, California.

[13] Linda Avey, Paul Cusenza and Anne Wojcicki founded 23andMe in 2006 to offer genetic testing and interpretation to individuals.

[20] On July 25, 2018, 23andMe announced a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline to allow the pharmaceutical company to use test results from 5 million customers to design new drugs.

[22] The company was based in Mountain View, California, initially in North Bayshore and then downtown,[23] until 2019, when it moved to a larger headquarters in Sunnyvale.

[26][27] In July 2020, 23andMe and GlaxoSmithKline announced their partnership's first clinical trial: a joint asset being co-developed by the two companies for cancer treatment.

The combined company was renamed to 23andMe Holding Co. and began trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange on June 17, 2021, under the ticker symbol "ME".

[13] Suggested factors include the fact that the company has never been profitable, with lack of recurring revenue from 23andMe's retail customers of its DNA kits (who only need to take the test once).

[35] In July 2024, Wojcicki announced her intention to take 23andMe private, by paying 40 cents each for all outstanding shares not already owned by her directly or through affiliates.

[36] The proposal was rejected by a committee set up to evaluate options for the company's future,[37] and in September the seven independent members of the board of directors all resigned.

[39] In January 2025, 23andMe declared that it would need additional liquidity to fund operations, and was actively exploring strategic alternatives including a potential sale of the company.

Customers provide a saliva testing sample that is partially single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyped and results are posted online.

[2][41] In 2008, when the company was offering estimates of "predisposition for more than 90 traits and conditions ranging from baldness to blindness", Time magazine named the product "Invention of the Year".

If the sample has a match in the microarray, the sequences will hybridize, or bind together, letting researchers know that this variant is present in the customer's genome by a fluorescent label located on the probes.

These matches are then compiled into a report that is supplied to the customer, allowing them to know if the variants associated with certain diseases, such as Parkinson's, celiac and Alzheimer's, are present in their own genome.

[43] This provides customers with the ability to choose one of the 23 chromosomes, as well as mitochondrial DNA, and see which base is located in certain positions in genes, and see how these compare to other common variants.

[7][44][45] Health-related results for US customers who purchased the test from November 22, 2013, were suspended until late 2015 while undergoing an FDA regulatory review.

[52] In late 2010, the company introduced a monthly subscription fee for updates based on new medical research findings.

[55] The price of the full direct-to-consumer testing service in the US reduced from $999 in 2007 to $399 in 2008[56] and to $99 in 2012,[18] and was effectively being sold as a loss leader in order to build a valuable customer database.

[55] In September 2016, an ancestry-only version was once again offered at a lower price of $99 with an option to upgrade to include the health component for an additional $125 later.

[7][46] 23andMe publicly responded to media reports on November 25, 2013, stating, "We recognize that we have not met the FDA's expectations regarding timeline and communication regarding our submission.

This makes the regulatory process with the FDA important because the work we are doing with the agency will help lay the groundwork for what other companies in this new industry do in the future.

[7][46] In May 2014, it was reported that 23andMe was exploring alternative locations abroad, including Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom, in which to offer its full genetic testing service.

[12] In 2014, 23andMe submitted a 510(k) application to the FDA to market a carrier test for Bloom syndrome, which included data showing that 23andme's results were consistent and reliable and that the saliva collection kit and instructions were easy enough for people to use without making mistakes that might affect their results, and included citations to the scientific literature showing that the specific tests that 23andMe offered were associated with Blooms.

[99] Questions have been raised since at least 2013 as to whether the company can obtain informed consent through its web-based interactions with people who want to submit samples for sequencing.

Since 23andMe is not a medical provider, the company does not have to abide by standard privacy policies that must be followed at a doctor's office, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

[119] 23andMe has an optional consent that enables the individual's genetic information to be included in medical research that may be published in a scientific journal.

[102][106] In 2010, 23andMe said that it was able to use its database to validate work published by the NIH: identifying mutations in the gene that codes for glucocerebrosidase as a risk factor for Parkinson's disease.

[118] In 2015, 23andMe made a business decision to pursue drug discovery themselves, under the direction of former Genentech executive Richard Scheller.

[126] The 23andMe Privacy Policy states that customers "can rest assured, we will not voluntarily share your Personal Information with... Law enforcement, absent a valid court order, subpoena, or search warrant".

Many of its 15 million customers, concerned about security of their DNA data stored by the company given its uncertain future, were attempting to delete it.