23andMe's journey from DNA testing pioneer to bankruptcy

(Reuters) - 23andMe filed for bankruptcy connected Sunday, deed by faltering request for its ancestry investigating kits arsenic it struggled to incorporate the reputational harm from a wide information breach.

Presented beneath is simply a series of events outlining the travel of the San Francisco-based firm, erstwhile considered a pioneer successful the DNA-testing space:

2006: Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza travel unneurotic arsenic co-founders of 23andMe. A twelvemonth later, the institution launches its archetypal direct-to-consumer familial investigating kit, which provides much than 200 wellness and trait reports arsenic good arsenic familial ancestry information.

2008: Time mag labels 23andMe's saliva-based familial investigating kit the "Invention of the Year."

2013: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issues a informing missive to 23andMe to halt selling its familial tests owed to concerns that it failed to supply immoderate denotation that it had analytically oregon clinically validated the trial kits for its intended uses.

2015: After 2 years of moving with regulators — including gathering immoderate of the FDA's reporting requirements — the institution is capable to marketplace its DNA trial kit straight to individuals successful the United States.

2016: 23andMe makes it to the CNBC Disruptor 50 database of companies.

2017: Oprah Winfrey names the 23andMe familial investigating kit 1 of her "favorite things" of the year.

2018: 23andMe signs a four-year collaboration statement with British drugmaker GSK, focusing connected probe and improvement of caller medicines utilizing quality genetics.

2019: American vocalist Lizzo dresses up arsenic the company's DNA trial kit for Halloween, and 23andMe is featured successful histrion Eddie Murphy's sketch connected Saturday Night Live.

Several media outlets study that the institution is seeing an astir 54% diminution successful income of its familial investigating kits.

2021: 23andMe goes nationalist aft merging with billionaire Richard Branson's SPAC, notching up a $3.5 cardinal valuation. Its marketplace capitalization nears $6 cardinal aboriginal that twelvemonth and the institution spends $400 cardinal to bargain telehealth steadfast Lemonaid Health.

2023: 23andMe notifies customers of a information breach successful its "DNA Relatives" diagnostic that allowed them to comparison ancestry accusation with users worldwide. It is aboriginal revealed that hackers stole ancestry information connected 6.9 cardinal users.

April 2024: Co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki considers making an connection to instrumentality the institution private.

July 2024: Wojcicki makes her archetypal non-binding connection to get each of the company's outstanding shares for 40 cents per share.

August 2024: 23andMe's committee rejects Wojcicki's take-private offer, calling it "insufficient."