LunaDNA Offering Qualified as the World's First Health and DNA Data Platform to Offer Ownership Shares to Individuals for Sharing Data
LunaDNA makes history with community-owned platform, setting new precedent that securely recognizes individual health data as currency
SOLANA BEACH, Calif., Dec. 5, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- LunaDNA LLC announced today that its securities offering has been qualified and its platform is now open to U.S. residents. LunaDNA is the first community-owned health and DNA data platform to offer ownership shares for contributing personal health information.
The Final Offering Circular for the offering is available at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website here. U.S. residents can sign up at LunaDNA.com to contribute data and obtain shares.
Founded by the Public Benefit Corporation LunaPBC, Inc., LunaDNA's platform is rooted in putting individuals at the center of health research, with unique features for data privacy, voluntary inclusion, transparency, and sharing in the value created from use of their data. The monetary value of LunaDNA share ownership will be expressed through dividends consistent with an individual's ownership percentage. Holders of shares can increase their holdings over time by contributing more data, and intrinsic value in the database is created as research advances and medical discoveries are accelerated.
This people-first model is designed to address previous industry research challenges such as data silos limitation, data usage non-transparency, and value imbalance. LunaDNA has created a global community for data sharing where community is the core tenet. Members control their inclusion in the database by always having the option to remove consent and delete their data from the platform.
"Nothing is more personal than our health and DNA data. LunaDNA, in a precedent-setting move, is enabling individuals to own shares in the company that monetizes their data. This new data paradigm enables a community to control their continued inclusion, learn about studies undertaken with the database, celebrate discoveries, and participate in the financial rewards that come from commercial partnerships," said Bob Kain, CEO and co-founder, LunaPBC.
Researchers from nonprofits, for-profits, disease organizations, and research communities will be able to query the LunaDNA platform for research studies. Members' de-identified and aggregated health data provided in response to those queries will help power research at the scope and scale needed for medical breakthroughs. While maintaining anonymity and only with consent, LunaDNA members may further opt-in to receive communications from researchers interested in including them in a research study or trial.
"Medical breakthroughs and improving quality of life depend on comprehensive, continuous, real-world health data organized to support medical discovery. People are the best curators of their health data, and we need them as partners in research," said Dawn Barry, president and co-founder, LunaPBC. "This model brings together social responsibility with technology for real-world, frictionless, passive information capture. We can imagine research as a continuous relationship versus a moment in time transaction."
Beginning today, you can receive shares for contributing eligible data types, including DNA data files from services such as 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and MyHeritage, on the LunaDNA platform.
About LunaDNA
LunaDNA is the first health and DNA data platform owned by its community of personal health information donors. LunaDNA empowers individuals to share their health data for medical research and the greater good of the community. As community owners in the LunaDNA platform, holders of shares participate in the value created from health discovers and medical breakthroughs.
LunaDNA was created by the privately-owned Public Benefit Corporation LunaPBC, founded in 2017 and headquartered in Solana Beach, California. The LunaPBC team, investors, and advisors are renowned in the patient-advocacy, health, and science fields, including several former chief executives of Illumina, industry academics, and financial executives.
LunaDNA does not provide genetic testing services, as it focuses on aggregating health information that individuals already own to accelerate health research. LunaDNA does not endorse any specific genetic testing company.
Forward Looking Statements
The matters contained in the discussion above may be considered to be "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations or anticipations of LunaDNA and LunaPBC and members of LunaPBC's management team. Factors currently known to management that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include the following: LunaDNA's ability to attract and retain members; breaches of network security or the misappropriation or misuse of personal and health data; dependence on LunaPBC for funding; market demand for analysis of genomic information and LunaDNA's ability to recruit researchers to query the database; the need to comply with complex and evolving U.S. and foreign laws and regulations; dependence on third parties to generate data contributed by members; competition; dependence on LunaPBC as manager of LunaDNA, including dependence of key personnel of LunaPBC; the ability of LunaPBC to unilaterally change LunaDNA's operating agreement and management services agreement; potential for disruption from network outages; failure to maintain the integrity of systems and infrastructure; liabilities as a result of privacy regulations; failure by LunaPBC to adequately protect intellectual property rights or allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights; the general non-transferability of shares and the lack of a trading market for the shares; uncertainty in the ability of LunaDNA to earn sufficient revenue, after expenses, to have sufficient funds to pay dividends to holders of shares; the discretion of LunaPBC as to the declaration of dividends on the shares; lack of voting rights and other typical shareholder rights; potential adverse effects of LunaPBC's conflicts of interest; and the limited recourse of LunaDNA share holders against LunaPBC for its actions as manager. These and additional factors to be considered are set forth under "Risk Factors" in LunaDNA's Final Offering Circular and in its other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. LunaDNA undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results or expectations, except as otherwise required by law.
For more information visit www.lunadna.com and view the Final Offering Circular here.
Contact:
Saramaya Penacho
BAM Communications
208-610-3375
[email protected]
SOURCE LunaDNA
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