LG Household & Health Care Ltd., South Korea’s leading manufacturer of cosmetics and personal care products, has joined hands with local biotech company Macrogen Inc. to begin a personal genome sequencing service.

The company said on Tuesday it signed an agreement with Macrogen to establish a 50:50 joint venture that will provide genome sequencing. Genome sequencing screens genes in an individual’s DNA to get information on genetic health risks. The joint venture named GenStory will be capitalized at 6 billion won ($5.29 million).

GenStory will develop and provide a direct-to-consumer genome sequencing service. LG Household & Healthcare will leverage its marketing channel and sales network to increase consumer access to the service backed by Macrogen’s capability in genome sequencing.

LG Household & Healthcare will utilize genome sequencing results to develop personalized cosmetics, helping consumer change living habits and manage personal care and health based on their genome data. With support from the country’s leading healthcare company, GenStory will target both advanced and emerging countries for its service, while accumulating technical capacity including the big data infrastructure through collection of genome data and living information, the company said.

On June 30, the Korean Ministry of Health and Welfare revised a bill to allow genome sequencing on 12 items including blood glucose, blood pressure, skin aging, cholesterol and hair loss to be conducted directly by private genome sequencing companies without a request from a health institute.

Macrogen president Jeong Hyeon-yong noted that despite the recently eased regulations on the use of human genome information for health and beauty purposes like advanced countries, the country’s genetic sequencing market remains underserved. With the establishment of the joint venture GenStory, Korean customers are expected to access to professional and comprehensive services based on genome information, Jeong said.

By Kim Hye-soon

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