Name: Watch 23andMe Co-Founder Speak at Fortune’s MPW NextGen Summit
Uploaded: 2016-12-01
Duration: 14 min 12 s
Description: Anne Wojcicki talks empowerment and education.

[ MUSIC ] Anne, thank you for being here with us again. Anytime. So, you guys have been around for about 10 years now right? Yeah almost 11. And you've gone through a lot. Just to recap a little bit. You were named Time Magazine's Invention of the Year in 2008. Mm- hm. In 2013, the FDA told you to discontinue marketing your genetic testing kits, and two years later you received FDA approval to provide customers with some health information, right? So where do things stand today? So it's still, it's been definitely a journey. I don't know how many people are in regulated industries, but it definitely [ LAUGH ], when [ CROSSTALK ] Yes, all of you. Definitely, it's a process and I think what happened for us is that diagnostics We believe we are a diagnostic and what happens the FDA told us that we're actually a medical device. And so we've been going through the process of proving out the efficacy of the test and the safety element and consumers. All of you in the room are in fact quite capable of actually getting information about yourselves. And what are you gonna do with it? And for me more than almost what like 23 me is doing, I see ourselves as actually the leader of the consumer health movement. And that more and more, you know I lived in Poland in 1993 and I was always fascinated by communism. And there's moments in time wheer I actually start to realize like we're kind of communist patients. You know we kind of are used to actually looking at our doctor and saying you tell us what to do. And other people should make decisions and part of what the drive of 23 means is to say no, no, no you're actually in charge of yourself. And not only your DNA, and you should be empowered, actually know this information, but you should actually be in charge of all of your health information. And we shouldn't teach you like you're incapable of knowing it, but we should actually teach you like you actually can learn about yourself, and then you can make decisions. And that there should be a joint decision process. So we're still evolving and obviously when of the big things, which is obviously a theme for everyone here, is the transition to the new government. Okay, well touch on that since you brought it up. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] You're a scientist. You studied biology right? Correct. So we just elected a president, who has said many things, especially on Twitter, and some of these are tweets. But I just went through and highlighted a few to remind you. These are some statement that he's made. So, the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing not competitive Stop. A storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee. I'm in Los Angeles and it's freezing. Global warming is a total and very expensive hoax, exclamation mark. Healthy young child goes to the doctor gets pumped with massive shot as many vaccines doesn't feel good and changes autism, in all caps. Many such cases. And lastly, remember new environmentally friendly light bulbs can cause cancer. Be careful, the idiots who came up with this stuff don't care. I don't know why I put that one in. Okay, I missed that one. [ LAUGH ] I just thought it was interesting. Okay, so in all seriousness what do the next four, possibly eight years mean from your perspective? When it comes to science. So I think it's two elements. It's obviously like I was publicly out there, I was a Hillary supporter, I'm obviously a big believer in science and a lot of her policies. So the transition has been, it's a real shock for us. At the same time we were really regulated In the last administration. And I do think that this changes. Like there's certain types of regulations that have already been sort of announced that they're not gonna move forward with. So it's quite likely this is much better for 23 and me. So what kind of regulations? So there was a guidance, for instance, called laboratory developed tests where they wanted to move labs over into being regulated, like 23 and me, as a medical device. And that is not going forward right now. So there is a bunch of regulations. I think you can look at the [ INAUDIBLE ] from Trump was for every new regulation to have to go away. So without a doubt, even- I didn't have that one in mind. You didn't? Sorry. [ LAUGH ] There's a lot that is actually going to change, in terms of enabling more people to actually So you just start to make decisions and having less regulations there, but without a doubt were obviously big Believers in science and data, and I think that my hope would be that the the 23 me would be less regulated and enabling more and more people to actually learn about genetics and learn about themselves actually open there their eyes more to science And so I'm a huge believer in education and I think that the more also education gets empowered and almost decentralized down to individuals and I look at all of us in the room as being leaders is it's all our our responsibility to actually be Educating. And so for 23andMe, education is a huge priority for us. From K through 12 and actually through medical school even, is making sure that people understand the basics. And I think that a lot of these things that you talk about global warming and whatnot, how much do people are they actually understanding the science? And can we actually start at an even earlier stage and get people believing that they are scientists? And I think scientists did a real disservice by wearing the white coat. And putting up this image of like, I'm the scientist, I have a PhD and I wear a coat. And they use big words and you can't understand it. And I think that that is actually a huge disservice to all of the middle of America, such as the Trump world where they're saying, there's all these big words. We don't get this. Like We actually need to empower them that anyone of any education level can actually understand this. So I think it's gonna really change and I'm hoping that we can actually flip it as a positive and that we can at least say from a genetics perspective in the sense of empowerment that we're giving people more education and teaching them to learn about themselves and what does this actually really mean? So it's interesting you brought up less regulation in the current administration when it comes to some of the stuff that you've had to deal with, and have been blocked by. And of course you're for that because you want your product out in the hands of consumers and that information out there. But at the same time, you guys recently decided to stop next generation sequencing Product. And it's not every day that a company in Silicon Valley decides not to put out there a product that is going to be faster and do more, right? It's always the opposite. So can you explain that Decision. I think, in part, that decision, I think a company, we're doing our company values, for instance, right now. And I think as we've looked at all these other companies and a lot of the succesful ones in Silicone Valley say, do one thing and do it really well. And what 23 me is really about is almost like an entry point into genetics. And I think what we learned is that there's a whole super complicated world when you get into the more diagnostic level of sequencing. And I think that's where Color Genomics which is here. That's a different type of experience than what we're doing. We give you a very broad education. Most people come to us, and they don't know what the 23 and 23andMe means. And we have to explain what is DNA, what's a chromosome, what do genes do, why are we different? I've had to tell certain people that there was this movement in the UK for a while saying we don't wanna eat food with DNA And it was like, that's really hard. [ LAUGH ] So you realize there's this education level that you need to, we need to empower people to just understand the basics. And I think that people are still scared. As much as they use DNA and genetics in their normal vernacular, people don't understand what it means and they're scared of it. So I think we can help De- risk it and get people excited and understanding and understanding that we're actually all related to each other and that you can learn about some things like, we have a, you know, a saturated fat report and how some people are potentially more likely to be heavier when they're eating a lot of saturated fat and some people are more likely to not be. So we have that kind of information and we can help people understand when you might want to actually have a more in- depth Test and then it's a totally different type of experience to actually go and have a diagnostic in that capacity. So you mentioned calergenomics. Katie are you in the room by the way raise your hand. We're gonna go to you soon for a question just so that you're preparing yourself. But there are other companies out there, there's a company Habit that's coming out soon where they Basically come up with a diet for you based on your DNA. [ COUGH ] I need something for my cough, by the way, if you can. And there are others, right? So I'm assuming you don't want a wild west I mean you talked about the importance of education. What would you I mean if you're the FDA I would say like our thoughts on the FDA was actually it's not that there shouldn't be regulation, I should make it all clear. I'm all for it cuz there bad actors out there and I think when we first started. I went to this woman who actually told me that if I took these vitamins, I could change my DNA. And I was like, really, can you explain, how do the vitamins change your DNA? And she kept telling me that there was research out there etc. So without a doubt, we believe that there should be some kind of regulation, and that there actually needs to be some kind of oversight of this. But, for instance, in the UK and in Canada, we actually have all our reports back out there, and we have CE mark approval, and there is a process that you can go through that's just not quite as restrictive. And I think that's actually one of the things that we advocate for But potentially more and more of a systematic way to look at it. And we've always said that we're a little bit of a square peg in a round hole. That, it's just that the system, we're willing to sort of, we'll comply, but the system that we're trying comply with isn't meant to have this kind of Scale. So I do worry about there is a world out there where people want to promise and say let me look at your DNA and then I'll tell you exactly how to exercise and I'll tell you exactly what to eat, and we reiterate over and over again that 23andMe is a science- led company. There's all kinds of things that you can look at. There's bad research all out there, and that you could potentially tell people things. But we're a science lead company, and we have to have some kind of standards. And so we do. We wanna make sure that people understand, I'm sorry, and believe in the information that we're giving back, and that there's scientific rigor to that. so I'm super eager to see how Habit and other companies do. I haven't looked at the science behind it and what they are doing but I do think that becomes part of the concern. You want to make sure that people have some faith and that they trust the information they are using. I have seen how much I tell some one their ancestry And how much that connection changed their lives. So there's a real meaningful impact. And part of by having a relationship with customers is you resonate on a daily basis just how much you actually are impacting people's lives. Yeah. Katie? Question or comment? Can you introduce yourself, even though I already did? Hi, I'm Katie Stanton. I'm the CMO of Color Genomics, and there's nothing like being called on in a Fortune MPW class sitting in the back. [ LAUGH ] Good thing I was paying attention. I'm a huge fan of Anne's. She has really paved the way, I think, for a lot of science Based innovations and at a time when it was really really hard. And the demystification of genetic testing is really amazing and empowering. Not just for business, but for humanity. So my question is, you've been at this for about 10 years now and you guys have sequenced millions of people's DNA What are some of the most interesting observations or outputs you guys have observed that can help improve people's lives? I think that there's two elements. I think, first and foremost, there's one, and I think I alluded to this in the beginning, is that people really thrive when they actually are empowered. And I think all of you who have children probably see this. Like the moment your children actually start to taste independence, and what it's like to make a decision for themselves, it's hard to ever turn that off. And to me, it's the same type of thing. Like people suddenly see, we're all given the same generic advice. Eat well, don't smoke, exercise. But the moment people see something and are like this is actually why I have a harder time losing weight. Or this is why actually why I'm at higher risk for melanoma. It's eye opening and for them the idea that they're suddenly empowered and that they can learn things about themselves and they can actually Like that they have been empowered, they've been entrusted, like wow, you can understand DNA and you can understand things about yourself and these are actually lifestyle decisions like prevention is not a money maker in the traditional healthcare system, these are lifestyle decisions and that you can then walk into Target and Walmart and say like, Hey I'm going to start working out or I am going to make a change in my diet and it's so empowering for people. And there has been studies that have come out about How, you know roughly 40 50 % of our customers they learn something and they want to make a lifestyle change. And so it just shows like so many people want to actually be empowered and do something and I just, I love that and that's why I'm hugely inspired and supportive of this entire consumer health world. More companies that are helping all of us be independent of the professional system that is otherwise making decisions for us. So we unfortunately need to wrap up because we've got a concert to put on. But just real real fast what's the most important piece of information that you've learned about yourself? Through your DNA. I'd say. Or interesting. So I pump this as like a family thing, is that Sergei, my ex, who found out that he was high risk for Parkinson's disease, and it really had a transformative impact on the family in the capacity that we understand why his mother has a Parkinson's and potentially his aunt and uncle, and that Sergei is at higher risk. And that for a reason we donate a ton of money every year to Michael J. Fox Foundation, we're really involved in the research. You can start to be aware, he started exercising and eating more. And I think that when you find out something that's really meaningful in the family then sometimes the whole family bonds around it. And you actually don't live by it every single day but you say you know what I need to actually be proactive in the choices I'm making. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Anne Wojcicki talks empowerment and education.