Good day and welcome to WSJ Pro Bankruptcy's Daily Briefing. It's Tuesday, May 20. In today's briefing, 23andMe secured a bid to live on inside Regeneron, a steep fall from the $6 billion peak it reached just a few years ago.

Regeneron to buy 23andMe out of bankruptcy for $256 million. The DNA testing company would sell for a fraction of its peak valuation of $6 billion to a biotech aiming to use its data troves for drug research. 23andMe would live on inside biotech Regeneron, which said it would continue operating the DNA business and use its database of roughly 15 million samples to help discover new drugs.

• The company's shares doubled on Monday as investors anticipated the purchase price would leave more value for them after the company’s debts are paid off. The shares are still down 99% from their public offering price.

Vance-founded VC firm sees science services business enter bankruptcy. AmplifyBio, a research-services provider backed by the venture capital firm that was co-founded by Vice President J.D. Vance, has filed for bankruptcy roughly a month after shutting down its operations.

The West Jefferson, Ohio-based company sought protection from creditors Friday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Columbus with at least $50 million in liabilities, including more than $30 million owed to technology nonprofit Battelle Memorial Institute.

Columbus-based Battelle is also its biggest equity owner, followed by Viking Global Investors, Casdin Capital and Narya Capital, the early-stage VC firm that Vance co-founded in 2019.

AmplifyBio’s history dates back to 1979, when it was established by Battelle. In 2021, the company was spun out and received equity financing to do its own advanced analytics, to offer manufacturing services and to eventually acquire a portfolio of patents for advanced gene therapies. Early last year, it opened an advanced manufacturing center in New Albany, Ohio, for cell therapy and gene editing products.

But “the company’s business model, which requires significant investment in facilities, technology, and scientific talent, has resulted in high costs,” Chief Restructuring Officer Kasey Rosado said in a sworn declaration. Losses have worsened, reaching $74 million last year. 

Last month, AmplifyBio reached a deal to sell 300 primates, all of which have been shipped to a buyer that still has time to inspect the animals. But AmplifyBio said it doesn’t expect any of the primates to be returned to the company, and that it has no other animals in its possession. –Becky Yerak

Crypto billionaire accused of defrauding creditors in 2022 industry collapse. In the depths of the 2022 crypto meltdown, billionaire crypto entrepreneur Barry Silbert had a message for investors like Mark Cuban: Stay calm, your money is safe, we’re solid. His own actions didn’t show the same confidence, according to new filings in lawsuits filed by creditors in Silbert’s now-bankrupt lending business, Genesis Capital.

A fire sale of Portland’s largest office tower shows how far the city has fallen. Portland’s U.S. Bancorp Tower, Big Pink, is over half empty and up for sale at 80% below its previous value. The property, once a premier address in the city, was afflicted with vagrants, according to court filings in a lease-termination lawsuit.

The building affectionately known as Big Pink because of its pink-hued Spanish granite and pink glazed glass has an asking price of about $70 million, according to brokers. That is more than 80% below what the owners paid for it a decade ago.

   SEC chair signals investor access to private markets could soon broaden. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s new chairman signaled Monday that he is open to letting fund managers sell private-investment products to a broader swath of investors.

• Direct lending aims to include 401(k) investors. Private credit has emerged as major lenders to businesses and are competing head-on with traditional banks, while operating mostly outside the reach of regulators. Now, the industry is reaching even deeper into the pockets of everyday Americans to manage money more directly for individual investors.

Share your tips, suggestions and feedback with the WSJ Pro Bankruptcy team: Soma Biswas; Alexander Gladstone; Jodi Xu Klein; Akiko Matsuda; Andrew Scurria; Becky Yerak. 

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