Google's biotech investment strategy

For all of the biotech entrepreneurs out there having a hard time raising an early financing round, Google might be your next roadshow stop.

According to the New York Times, Google invested US$3.9 million in 23andme. 23andme is in the genetics information business, which may well indicate that Google’s cookies are about to get dramatically more invasive into your personal affairs and web habits.

I can see the next generation of the permission form now: “By using Google’s web search technology, you agree and consent to provide a sample of your DNA to us for our own use.”

Good for Google’s audit committee, as according to a corporate spokesman, the announcement was their idea:

“Our audit committee requested that we disclose this in order to be completely transparent with our investors about the facts underlying this investment.”

It would appear that the audit committee thought investors would want to know that Google had invested in 23andme last month. Something to do with the CEO of 23andme being Sergey Brin’s wife.

With US$14 billion in Google shares, you’d think it would have been a tad easier for Mr. Brin to just sell 8,369 GOOG shares and make the investment personally. Heck, there are more than a handful of venture debt lenders that would have done the deal with the Google shares as collateral.

MRM