2006 年，对单个人类基因组进行测序的估计成本约为 1400 万美元。同年，Anne Wojcicki 与联合创始人 Linda Avey 和 Paul Cuszena 一起创办了一家公司，承诺以低至 99 美元的价格提供直接面向消费者的基因测序。
23andMe 是过去十年我们在最具颠覆性的公司中看到的许多特征的一个例子：它建立了一个强大的消费者品牌，已成为新商业模式（个人基因）的代名词；它克服了可能使公司早年陷入困境的监管挑战；它与更大的老牌企业合作，以扩大业务并找到盈利途径；它利用特殊目的收购公司 (SPAC) 的普及浪潮进入公开市场。总而言之，对于我们回顾首届 Disruptor 50 榜单而言，这是一家很棒的公司。
到 2013 年第一个 Disruptor 50 榜单发布时，23andMe 赢得了榜单的一席之地，该公司已从生物技术公司 Genentech、风险投资公司 New Enterprise Associates 和谷歌（Wojcicki 的妹妹，苏珊是谷歌的早期员工，也是 YouTube 的首席执行官，当时安妮·沃西基嫁给了谷歌创始人谢尔盖·布林）。消费者正在寻找购买产品的方式，表现出对了解更多关于他们的祖先和健康的兴趣，并愿意为此付费。
然后是监管者。 2013 年 10 月，FDA 阻止 23andMe 提出任何与健康相关的声明，严重减缓了其增长速度，并使其与其他更专注于家谱的公司直接竞争。 FDA 对 23andMe 进行了为期两年的审查，最终于 2015 年 10 月为其健康数据开绿灯。这为一段高速增长扫清了道路。
在缺席两年后，它也为再次出现在 Disruptor 50 名单上扫清了道路。监管机构批准的新 23andMe 在 2016 年榜单上排名第五，这是 2016-2019 年连续四次亮相中的第一次。在那段时间，它获得了“独角兽”的地位，宣布与制药公司葛兰素史克建立重要合作伙伴关系，利用其基因数据设计新药，个人 DNA 检测的普及率飙升，成为一种文化现象。从 2017 年到 2019 年，参加 23andMe 测试的人数几乎翻了两番，部分归功于一些巧妙的营销努力，包括亿万富翁投资者沃伦·巴菲特 (Warren Buffett) 的广告。
该公司表示，截至去年 9 月，已有近 1200 万人接受了 23andMe 的 DNA 测序，其中 80% 的人选择参与可能导致新药发现等的研究。这是它作为一家上市公司的承诺。 6 月，23andMe 完成了与理查德布兰森爵士支持的 SPAC 公司 VG Acquisition Corp 的合并。自那以后，这条路一直坎坷——该股自以“ME”开始交易以来已经贬值了一半以上。
23andMe 现在与许多 Disruptor 50 公司有另一个共同点——它必须说服投资者相信下一步行动。部分归功于 23andMe 最初的颠覆，基因组测序的成本在 16 年内下降了 99.99%，但 23andMe 的未来在于其推动药物发现的能力，这将帮助它找到一种持续盈利的方法，作为测序的新颖性自己的 DNA 会磨损。
两家公司本月早些时候宣布，与葛兰素史克的交易又延长了一年。葛兰素史克在一份新闻稿中指出，经过基因验证的药物靶点在成为药物方面“成功概率至少增加了一倍”。
“我们希望他们真正拥有个性化的医疗保健体验，并且……通过将所有这些汇总数据转化为治疗计划，使人类基因组受益，”Wojcicki 在该股首日交易中接受 CNBC 采访时表示。 “当我想到治疗学的未来时，在接下来的五年里，真正要推进这些项目并将它们带入临床。”
One of Google's earliest genetic experiments, 23andMe, paid off — here's what will make or break its future
In 2006, the estimated cost of sequencing a single human genome was about $14 million. That same year, Anne Wojcicki, along with co-founders Linda Avey and Paul Cuszena, started a company that promised to provide direct-to-consumer genetic sequencing for as little as $99.
23andMe stands out as an example of many of the traits we've seen in the most disruptive companies over the last decade: It built a strong consumer brand that has become synonymous with a new business model (personal genetics); it fought off a regulatory challenge that threatened to sink the company in its early years; it partnered with a larger incumbent to expand its business and find a path to profitability; and it rode the wave of popularity of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) to reach the public markets. In all, it's a great company for our year-long look back at the inaugural Disruptor 50 list.
By the time the first Disruptor 50 list was published in 2013, and 23andMe earned a spot on the list, the company had raised more than $50 million from investors including biotech firm Genentech, venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, and Google (Wojcicki's sister, Susan, was an early Google employee and is the CEO of YouTube, and, at the time, Anne Wojcicki was married to Google founder Sergey Brin). Consumers were finding their way to the product, showing both an interest in knowing more about their ancestry and health, and a willingness to pay for it.
Then came the regulators. The FDA stopped 23andMe from making any health-related claims in October 2013, severely slowing its growth and putting it in direct competition with other companies that were more focused on genealogy. The FDA put 23andMe through a two-year review process before finally giving its health data the green light in October 2015. That cleared the way for a period of hypergrowth.
It also cleared the way, following a two year absence, for another appearance on the Disruptor 50 list. The new, regulator-approved 23andMe ranked fifth on the 2016 list, the first of four consecutive appearances from 2016-2019. During that time, it achieved “unicorn” status, announced a critical partnership with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline to use its genetic data to design new drugs, and the popularity of personal DNA testing soared, becoming somewhat of a cultural phenomenon. The number of people who took 23andMe's test nearly quadrupled from 2017 to 2019, thanks in part to some clever marketing efforts including a commercial voiced by billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
As of last September, the company says, nearly 12 million people have had their DNA sequenced by 23andMe, with 80% of them opting in to research that could lead to new drug discoveries and more. This is its promise as a publicly traded company. In June, 23andMe completed a merger with VG Acquisition Corp, a SPAC backed by Sir Richard Branson. It's been a bumpy road since – the stock has lost more than half its value since it began trading under the ticker symbol “ME.”
23andMe now has another thing in common with many Disruptor 50 companies – it has to convince investors to believe in the next act. It's thanks in part to 23andMe's initial disruption that the cost of genomic sequencing has fallen by 99.99% in 16 years, but 23andMe's future lies in its ability to power the drug discovery that will help it find a way to sustained profitability as the novelty of sequencing one's own DNA wears off.
The deal with GlaxoSmithKline was extended for another year, the companies announced earlier this month. GSK noted in a release that genetically validated drug targets have “at least double the probability of success” in becoming medicines.
“We want them to truly have a personalized health-care experience and ... benefit the human genome from seeing all of this aggregated data turned into therapeutic programs,” Wojcicki said in a CNBC interview on the stock's first day of trading. “When I think about the future of therapeutics, in the next five years it is really about moving these programs forward and getting them into the clinic.”
