Friday, August 31, 2012

5 years later, Navigenics fulfills my prophecy


From August 24 2007 (5 years ago)

Just wanted to give a shout out to David Hamilton from Venture Beat who wrote about Navigenics a while ago. To me whether 23andMe has a competitor or not does not matter. All that it sounds like is another non-clinical company trying to be clinical..........

From his article

"In other words, Navigenics essentially intends to get people to have their genomes scanned in a rough-and-ready fashion — in other words, they’ll scan your genes with chips that look for single-letter variations in the genetic code, instead of laboriously reading it out letter by letter — and then to match up what they find with the latest information on the diseases to which your genes might predispose you. Navigenics so far seems focused on the question of what your genes might say about disease, whereas 23andMe is apparently also interested in helping people trace their genealogy and creating social networks where they can compare and contrast their genetics."

And my favorite quote: "At the very least, though, it’s clear Navigenics has come loaded for bear. In addition to the blue-chip VC backing......"

The thing my mother always taught me.......the more money you need to market and sell something, the more likely it is that people don't need it........


Thoughts????? 


It appears, my thoughts were correct.....

 From August 2012 HT D.C.

Dear Navigenics Member,

Navigenics was recently acquired by Life Technologies. As the Navigenics team transitions its focus to Life Technologies’ developing molecular diagnostic business, we want to thank you for your patronage and making genetics a part of your health.

This email will be the final communication from Navigenics. Here are some important things to know about your Navigenics account:
  • Your genetic information is yours. Your genetic results will be available to you in your secure online account for three years, and you may log in to the Navigenics portal as usual to access your genetic information: https://www.navigenics.com/member/loginPlease bookmark the link to your account for future reference. After August 2015, to ensure the privacy and security of your information, your genetic results will be deleted and will no longer be available to you online. Any remaining genetic samples you may have stored with us will have already been destroyed and discarded.
  • Your privacy is our priority. In compliance with its existing policies and informed consent, Navigenics will not sell or share customers’ personally identifiable or genetic data.

You can find additional information in our online FAQs: https://www.navigenics.com/visitor/about_us/acquisition_faqs/.

Wishing you the best of health,

Navigenics Member Service

Navigenics Member Service can be reached directly at 1-866-522-1585 ormemberservice@navigenics.com. If you do have questions or need to contact us for any reason, please do so before September 21, 2012. After that time Navigenics Member Service will no longer be available by email or phone.

4 Embarcadero Center, Suite 1400. San Francisco CA, 94111

The Sherpa Says: No matter how much money you spend in SoHo, you shoulda made sure you could test the people in NYC.