Nearly 20 States Bless 23andMe Sale After New Buyer Announced
A bipartisan coalition of 17 states and the District of Columbia on Wednesday gave their approval of TTAM Research Institute's agreement to acquire 23andMe and its data. The group argued in a court filing that TTAM isn't really a third party since its chief, Anne Wojcicki, is 23andMe's founder and former CEO. Even still, some states continued to object to the $305 million sale of the bankrupt biotech company despite TTAM's pledge to adopt additional data privacy protections in response to concerns (see 2506160045).
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The 17 states and D.C. said that they "are not opposed to the newly proposed equity sale to TTAM," since "this particular buyer is arguably an affiliate of the Debtors and not a third party," and "there is no actual physical or electronic transfer or disclosure of any DNA or other customer material or data."
However, they reiterated that their objection and complaint from last week -- along with 10 other states (see 2506100051)-- still stands,as "the States still contend that Debtors have no right to auction off and transfer to a third party their customers’ biological material, genetic data, and phenotype information without first obtaining express, informed consent from each customer prior to transfer."
The group included Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Vermont, West Virginia and Wisconsin, plus the District of Columbia. Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania joined through undersigned counsel.
The new buyer and its pledges didn't sway some other states, however. For example, Kentucky added a supplemental objection late on Tuesday. It argued that a court order approving the sale must include "express consent ... from every Kentuck[y]" customer "before any genetic data is transferred.” Kentucky was also part of a lawsuit and objection to the sale that a bipartisan group of almost 30 state attorneys general filed June 9 (see 2506100051).
On Wednesday, Utah joined Kentucky's supplemental objection, citing similar reasoning. Utah's Genetic Information Privacy Act requires “express consent” for the transfer or disclosure of genetic data of customers before a sale is finalized, it said. Tennessee, which filed a separate objection from the group of states on June 10, was also included in Kentucky's objection that was joined by Utah.
Also on Wednesday, California filed objections to evidence 23andMe submitted to the court. California said the sellers submitted certain evidence after midnight the day before the hearing -- before Judge Brian Walsh in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Eastern Missouri (see 2506170055) -- was scheduled to begin. In addition, California, Texas and Tennessee filed supplemental objections earlier this week (see 2506170055).
State officials and members of Congress have continued to voice concerns over the bankruptcy sale and encouraged 23andMe to seek affirmative consent (see 2506110047). A court-appointed consumer privacy ombudsman endorsed affirmative consent in a report last week (see 2506120080).