(Bloomberg) — 23andMe Inc., the Google Inc.-backed genetic-testing startup that popularized a $99 DNA spit test, will expand from screening people for diseases to inventing new medicine to cure them.

The Silicon Valley company has recruited a top biotechnology executive to help. Richard Scheller spent almost 15 years at Genentech, heading research and early development at the company that invented pioneering cancer drugs Herceptin and Avastin. He'll lead 23andMe's new therapeutics group.

It's the latest evolution for 23andMe, which went from a seller of novelty ancestry kits to one of the world's biggest repositories of genetic data, doing business with major pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer Inc. and Genentech.

Now it may compete with those giants.

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