--- title: "23andMe CEO Says Company Is Doing Fine Despite Losing 93% of Stock Value" description: "The consumer genome sequencing company 23andMe is a sinking ship – and their CEO is on the deck, playing the violin." date: "2024-02-13" modified: "2024-02-13" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/23andme-founder-optimistic-devaluing" categories: - "Gene Editing" - "Genetics" - "Health & Medicine" tags: - "23andme" - "dna" - "genome sequencing" - "health" --- # 23andMe CEO Says Company Is Doing Fine Despite Losing 93% of Stock Value ![The consumer genome sequencing company 23andMe is a sinking ship – and their CEO is on the deck, playing the violin.]() *\Image: Hubert Vestil for SXSW via Getty / Futurism\* The consumer genome sequencing company 23andMe is a sinking ship – and its CEO is conducting the orchestra. As [*Wired* reports](), 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki was chipper on a February 7 earnings call despite the company's abysmal revenue report that led to its [stock being devalued]() to below 75 cents per share, down a whopping 93 percent from the $16.04 when it [first went public](). "We are an unusual company," Wojcicki said, per *Wired*, during the investor call. That response very much undersells the circumstances that may lead to 23andMe spinning off its consumer DNA testing and therapeutics wings into separate entities, like so many unraveled strands of double helixes. That fateful earnings parley occurred just after the third anniversary of 23andMe announcing that it would be [going public]() in 2021 and merging with a specialized holding company owned by none other than billionaire Richard Branson. The company was valued at a whopping $3.5 billion as a result, and later that same year, it [purchased the Lemonaid telehealth service]() — but didn't unveil its tony rebranded version, a $99-per-month service now called Total Health, [until this past November](). "It’s an evolution for the company in terms of just providing access to your genome," Wojcicki told *Wired*, "to now putting the wrapper around it and saying, 'We actually want to take care of you. We want to be your partner in prevention.'" That's all fine and good, but it doesn't negate the fact that in only three years, 23andMe has burned through more than half its fundraised cash, gone through [multiple layoff rounds](), and could, as the [*Wall Street Journal* reported]() last week, run out of money by next year. While its therapeutic wing has been in the works for years, the database that undergirds its [slow-going research](), which is gleaned from its customers' genetic information, may also have spelled the beginning of its downfall. That database was the subject of a [massive hack]() last year, and between that breach and the money it burned in the years since going public, things are looking bleak. To be fair, Wojcicki's Pollyanna-ism isn't entirely blind. In an [interview with *Bloomberg*]() last week, she seemed to at least acknowledge the financial hit the company's therapeutic arm has brought upon it. "When we decided to do drug discovery," she said, "it was a commitment to saying we are going to be burning cash." Facing down all that context, the investors whose confidence drove the company to its multi-billion-dollar valuation are clearly getting worried. Now, as 23andMe faces the risk of being [delisted by Nasdaq]() because its stock price is in the toilet, Wojcicki says she's "optimistic" about the future. "I think it’s a really exciting time," she told *Wired.* "I think that there’s going to be incredible advances in healthcare, and honestly, I’m most interested in how you shift the curve on people." To Wojcicki's mind, the future — of 23andMe and the healthtech industry at large — will "be about integrating" genetic data into "more efficient drug discovery," a statement that belies her self-declared optimistic nature. There is, of course, no doubt that genomic medicine is [going to continue to grow]() — but whether 23andMe will be part of it, or even continue to exist at all, remains to be seen. **More on genetic futures:** [*Genes Aren't Actually the Blueprint of Life, Experts Say*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()