Searching for new biotech solutions
pharmafile | June 1, 2015 | Feature | Manufacturing and Production, Medical Communications, Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | 23andME, Emily Drabant Conley, google
For pharma, the elevator pitch for 23andMe is an intriguing prospect. It has the largest genetic database in the world, with genetic and real-world information about the health of nearly a million customers, and the ability to contact people again for follow-up and research studies.
Since its launch nine years ago the company behind the personal DNA testing service, and latterly a pharma R&D movement, has sold over 950,000 genetic tests – enough to publish over 30 research papers drawn from the genomic analysis of its clients.
After Google invested $4 million – along with Roche’s biotech arm Genentech and venture capitalists – 23andMe began marketing personalised tests directly to consumers in the US.
In December 2014 the tests went on sale online for £125 in the UK, and provide information about ancestry and details of any genetic predisposition to a range of diseases.
The latest move to boost its UK presence came in March, when the company launched an over-the-counter test for sale in high street pharmacy chain Superdrug.
The firm has big plans for the UK, says Dr Emily Drabant Conley, director of business development at 23andMe, who explains that gathering and leveraging the genetic and health data the company is able to collect is key to its growth.
But despite the success of the testing service this was only ever a slice of the 23andMe business model, Drabant Conley says. The end game has always been to use the genetic database built up from customer’s DNA analyses to start finding or validating new drug targets “in a way that we have never been able to do before”.
“23andMe was founded with a dual mission in mind: empowering people by giving them direct access to their genetic information and the tools to understand it, and revolutionising how research and drug development is conducted by getting consumers to participate in the research process.
“We were able to execute on the consumer side much more quickly, and that’s what we’re more known for, but in the last couple of years we have really started to get a lot of traction in terms of forging partnerships with the pharma and biotech industry.
“We have 14 biotech partnerships that we closed last year, but we have only disclosed a couple of them.”
So far those that have been announced include a collaboration with Genentech to identify new targets for Parkinson’s disease, and a similar effort with Pfizer in inflammatory bowel disease and in lupus.
The latter project launched in May, with a research objective to “understand the genetic associations found between lupus patients’ DNA and their disease, and apply this understanding to Pfizer’s drug development efforts”.
Doing research this way is certainly an attractive option for big pharma, as evidenced by the 23andMe collaborations. Other pharma deals have been struck between Biogen and Google X, the tech giant’s life sciences division, to study multiple sclerosis; Genentech and US genetics firm Human Longevity led by Human Genome Project pioneer Craig Venter, and a $1.5 billion pact between AbbVie and Google’s healthcare arm Calico.
“The partnerships underscore the value of bringing genetic data into drug development,” Drabant Conley says.
“If nine out of 10 drugs fail, one potential explanation for that is that by the time you put a new drug into a human being in a Phase I clinical trial, there’s often not a lot of data that has validated that target. So now I think there’s been a shift in the field and an interest in bringing genetic data into the process of drug development and increasing the odds for success.”
The shift prompted 23andMe’s announcement in March to effectively cut out the pharma middle-man and move into drug development directly, by using genetic data drawn from its customer database to design new medicines.
As a measure of its potential Drabant Conley contrasts 23andMe’s plans with the $415 million deal Amgen negotiated to acquire DeCode genetics in December 2012.
“Amgen has repeatedly said it has been a valuable investment for them as a company. Yet the 23andMe database is significantly bigger – more than twice as big – and continuing to grow, so I really do feel this is a significant resource in drug development.”
The new therapeutics division will aim to use human genetic data as the starting point for identifying new therapies for both common and rare diseases. To flex its muscles further the company has appointed pharma veteran Richard Scheller, who retired after a 14-year career at Genentech in December 2014, as chief science officer and head of therapeutics.
“The therapeutic division will be looking broadly across disease areas initially. The pharma collaborations are in areas where we feel we are strong, but when people sign up we ask them about autoimmune disease, neurology, cancer, cardiovascular disease, right across their health and background. More than 80% of people say they want to use their data for research, so part of the beauty of our platform is that it is broad.”
It’s likely the push will have an impact in the UK, where the company is working with Pfizer to study pain, and with a team from the University of Bristol on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) to identify 16 new genetic associations for common allergies.
Drabant Conley says the UK is also a good candidate because of government-funded big data genomics projects that have put the UK “light years ahead of other countries in terms of the conversation about genetics”.
“What’s unique to the UK is the appetite for genetic information and genetic research. It’s significant that there are large-scale genetic initiatives like the 100,000 Genomes Project and UK Biobank, and that Genomics England has a large presence, that make it a great ecosystem for doing research.
“There’s really not a lot of other countries that are doing projects like that and that’s something that we are quite interested in and excited about. The large-scale initiatives that are publically funded and therefore in the public eye, mean there’s a conversation about genetics in the UK that is much more advanced than in other countries – and a lot of interest from consumers and pharma about genetic data.
“Consumers in the UK have much more appetite for genetic research and are generally more educated and engaged about genetics, and that’s certainly a draw for us.”
Industry observers are watching closely to see if the 23andMe proposition will provide a significant resource in drug development. For UK pharma the potential to tap into such a large bank of patient data could be a powerful way to search for new strategies.
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