Anne Wojcicki Buys Back 23andMe for $305M, Promises Data Security

By Bio-IT World Staff 

July 2, 2025 | Consumer genomics pioneer 23andMe will be returning to its co-founder and former CEO as Anne Wojcicki’s TTAM Research Institute outbids Regeneron to buy 23andMe out of bankruptcy—as long as no more state attorneys general object. The current iteration of the sale is expected to close on July 8.  

The TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit medical research organization founded by Wojcicki, won a second auction for the company with a winning bid of $305M. Last week a judge approved the sale.  

“The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri approved the proposed purchase of all of the assets of 23andMe by TTAM Research Institute (“TTAM”), and we anticipate that the sale will close on or as soon as reasonably practicable after July 8, 2025,” the company said in an email to customers.  

It’s been a rocky road since Anne Wojcicki addressed the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in 2018. “My hope is that we come back here in 10 years and we can say with confidence and with data that we can actually do drug discovery more efficiently than the rest of the industry because we start with a human genetic database,” Wojcicki said then.  

In 2021, the company went public through a merger with a SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisition Company) called VG Acquisition Corp becoming 23andMe Holding Co., but struggled to be profitable, mostly because of the lack of returning customers. Data security and privacy concerns related to customer data and genetic information also affected the company’s stock, particularly when a data breach impacted 6.9 million user accounts in December 2023. In September 2024, the seven independent directors on the 23andMe board resigned en masse, citing Wojcicki’s failure to offer, “a fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal that is in the best interests of the non-affiliated shareholders.”   

Wojcicki persevered, and in January 2025, the company launched Discover23, a research offering enabling authorized collaborators to securely access the power and diversity of the 23andMe research cohort through a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) developed by Lifebit providing analysis-ready genome-wide association studies (GWAS) on 1000+ disease and condition cohorts curated from 4.7B phenotypic data points by 23andMe’s expert scientists. 

But by March of this year, the company had filed for bankruptcy. Wojcicki resigned as CEO immediately. “I have resigned as CEO of the company so I can be in the best position to pursue the company as an independent bidder,” she said in a statement on her personal X. She set up TTAM (an acronym on Twenty-Three And Me) as a nonprofit research institute in May.  

Finding the Highest Bidder

In the weeks that followed, state attorneys general around the country called for citizens to delete their data from 23andMe and raised the alarm on consumer privacy. 23andMe tried to calm the outcry, “To constitute a qualified bid, potential buyers must, among other requirements, agree to comply with 23andMe’s consumer privacy policy and all applicable laws with respect to the treatment of customer data,” the company said in March press release.  

Regeneron won the first auction with TTAM as a back-up option, announcing on May 19 that it was purchasing “substantially all assets” of 23andMe for $256 million in a deal expected to close on July 1. Regeneron already uses deidentified data from its own sequenced genetic information of nearly three million people in research studies, the biotech said, so it was well positioned to support 23andMe with its mission of helping customers learn about their DNA and how to improve their personal health, as well as continuing with efforts  “to use large-scale genetics research to improve the way society treats and prevents illness overall,” said Regeneron leadership.   

But on June 10 a coalition of 28 attorneys general sued 23andMe in an effort to protect consumer data. “The Debtors [those selling the company] have no right to sell their customers’ genetic identities to the highest bidder, unless the Debtors first obtain express informed consent to the proposed transaction/transfer by each consumer impacted,” the suit reads.  

Bidding was reopened and TTAM won this round for $305M.  

Some of the states viewed TTAM’s win as functionally the same as 23andMe retaining control of the data. Judge Brian Walsh of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Missouri, in St. Louis, wrote that the current structure of the deal “involves a sale of customer data only in a technical sense.” Justin Leonard, a lawyer representing Oregon in the states' lawsuit, said that this outcome would satisfy the states' concerns: “It's going to be under the same privacy policies, the same cybersecurity protections, same management as it was before.”  

Other states disagree. The judge’s ruling noted that a handful of states — California, Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah — “remain actively opposed to the sale.” Those opposed to the sale have until midnight on July 7 to be granted a stay in order to appeal. 

TTAM’s Vision

If no objections arise from the remaining states, the purchase of the assets of 23andMe by TTAM will close on or as soon as reasonably practicable after July 8, 2025. 

“TTAM’s charitable mission is to continue the innovative research and scientific discoveries that were core to 23andMe, while expanding its active conduct of medical research and educational activities to empower individuals to learn about their own genomes and advance our knowledge of human health,” the organization said in their email to 23andMe customers.  

“Customer privacy is at the core of TTAM’s mission of helping individuals gain insight into, and benefit from, their genetic information.  TTAM is committed to adhering to 23andMe’s existing privacy policies of always honoring customers with choice and transparency,” the email continued. TTAM assured customers that no data has been moved physically or electronically thus far and that “the same employees and privacy protocols” would govern data use moving forward.  

Interestingly, TTAM does not seem to know for sure which customers deleted their data since the March bankruptcy announcement. “This message is for current customers of 23andMe – if you are a former customer or a customer who has deleted your information, please disregard this notice,” the email said.  

“We plan to continue providing the same types of products and services 23andMe has provided,” the company statement says, “and we also look forward to expanding the innovative research and scientific discoveries that were core to 23andMe, now as a nonprofit research institution with a mission of collecting and analyzing genetic data on an unprecedented scale in pursuit of education, medical research and scientific discovery for the benefit of all.”