Craig Venter’s goal is to sequence 100 million genomes

[Craig] Venter’s goal is to sequence at least one million genomes, something that seems likely to take the better part of a decade, and use the data generated from them—along with information about some of the DNA donors’ health histories and the results of other medical tests—to find better ways to treat and prevent a range of disorders common among aging people, from cancer to heart disease.

Venter, 69, has raised $300 million from investors that include GE Ventures, the biotech company Celgene, and Illumina, which supplies the sequencing machines. And HLI has partnerships with the British pharmaceutical giant ­AstraZeneca and the South San Francisco–­based Roche subsidiary Genentech, both of which are contributing patient samples for sequencing.

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Who is going to pay for all this testing and personalized medicine? Is it even worth the money? …

Venter has hired actuaries to help prove out the economics of HLI’s personalized approach, hoping to get insurance companies on board. Even if it costs $25,000 per patient, he says, it beats spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on chemotherapy and other treatments that ultimately won’t save lives.

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