23andMe Buyer Should Keep Data Sharing Commitment, Scholars Say

The impending bankruptcy sale of genetic analysis company 23andMe should be conditioned on the ultimate purchaser’s commitment to maintain a policy of licensing customer data for health research and non-exclusive drug development, a group of academics argued.

Regardless which company wins a competitive auction for 23andMe’s assets, the sale should come with strings attached to preserve “a significant benefit to the public,” more than a dozen university professors said in a filing Tuesday to the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.

Approximately 12.6 million 23andMe customers have authorized the company to use their genetic data for scientific ...