It’s OK To Make Money on Genetic Research: New at Reason

In July, 23andMe and pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced a $300 million collaboration that will focus on research and development of new medicines and cures, using insights from human genetics as the basis for discovery. GSK will have exclusive access for four years to 23andMe’s huge human genetic database, whose 5 million customers make it about “10 times larger than some of the other databases that are out there,” GSK’s chief scientific officer said in a CNBC interview.

Not everyone was pleased. In Time, Peter Pitts, president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest think tank, argued that “if your data is going to be used for commercial purposes, you should be compensated.”

That’s not, however, the bargain that was struck between 23andMe and its customers, writes Ronald Bailey.

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