Who's monetising your DNA?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 27 February 2019
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Should the collection of vast genetic databases be dominated by private companies such as 23andMe or Ancestry.com?
In the second of two programmes looking at the businesses riding high on the boom in home DNA testing kits, Manuela Saragosa looks at how the enormous head start these companies have over public sector DNA research initiatives may be skewing medical research.
Will the profit motive drive these companies to wall off their databases, and give access only to pharmaceutical companies capable of developing lucrative new drugs that mainly benefit the predominately wealthy, white customers who send in their DNA samples in the first place?
The programme features interviews with Kathy Hibbs of 23andMe, Mark Caulfield of Genomics England, and Kayte Spector-Bagdady of the University of Michigan Medical School.
Producer: Laurence Knight
(Picture: Woman's cheek being swabbed; Credit: AndreyPopov/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Linda, and I'm Mercy. |
| 0:01.8 | Don't worry, you haven't downloaded the wrong podcast. |
| 0:04.1 | We're here to tell you about our new podcast. |
| 0:06.2 | It's called Parentland, and it deals with problems that sound, sort of like this. |
| 0:10.8 | Come on, into bed. |
| 0:13.8 | I don't want to go to bed. |
| 0:16.9 | I want to be an elephant. |
| 0:19.9 | That's Parentland, a brand new podcast from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:23.5 | And we'll be back at the end of this podcast to tell you a bit more about it. |
| 0:28.9 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC with me, Manuela Saragossa. |
| 0:34.4 | Coming up, monetising your DNA. |
| 0:37.1 | If you think about these companies, their valuation isn't based on the ability to sell $200 test kits. |
| 0:44.6 | Their valuation is based on their ability to collect and sell data. |
| 0:48.6 | Does it matter that so many DNA databases are owned by private commercial companies? |
| 0:55.8 | Would it be better for them to be publicly owned? It costs billions of dollars to develop new therapies, and most are not successful. |
| 1:02.1 | So I don't think it's financially feasible for the public sector to do it on its own. |
| 1:06.8 | That's all here in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 1:12.6 | If you've ever sent off your DNA to an ancestry or health screening company for analysis, |
| 1:18.1 | chances are your DNA data will be shared with third parties for medical research or even for |
| 1:23.4 | solving crime. That's unless you've specifically asked the company not to do so. |
| 1:28.3 | The point was brought home late last month when it emerged that the popular genetic genealogy |
| 1:33.1 | company, Family Tree DNA, is working with the FBI to test DNA samples provided by law |
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