The life sciences industry has long been known for its fiery competitions in hyper-growth related markets. Remember J&J and Boston Scientific vying for control of the drug-coated stent market? How about the War of the Statins amongst all the Big Pharma companies? Signs point to sequencing as the next big struggle for a handful of key players.
Applied Biosystems (now Life Technologies) and Illumina have been locked in a battle for the past few years. Now enters Pacific Biosciences in northern California as an exciting upstart fostering new technology. Even bigger players can be found in this sandbox. Roche (specifically its 454 division) & IBM just struck a deal to a novel genome sequencing technology that should advanced Roche’s push into the evasive landscape of personalized medicine. EMerck just acquired Millipore in a $7B deal that will bring them into the space. General Electric & Agilent also have a foothold.
Not to get too technical, but one race being watched centers on single-molecule sequencing with silicon chip – call it a biocomputer for simplicity’s sake. Get this right and you will significantly speed up & reduce the cost of DNA decoding – or sequencing. The more DNA we can sequence, the more research can be done to find new treatments for patients and diseases. Consider this comparison. Just like the flatscreen television hanging in your living room, costs go down as technology evolves. It cost almost $3 billion to decode the first human genome. Today, the goal is to drive the price below $1,000.
And all these companies are beginning to get more specialized in their approach. Illumina & Life Technologies are both gunning for the general sequencing market while Roche is targeting the market that matches donors for organ transplants. Pacific BioSciences is targeting applications. Some smaller companies like Ion Torrent & Complete Genomics are leveraging a different business model with sequencing as a service. In other words, “don’t buy my equipment for your lab, run your test on my more advanced equipment“.
All fascinating stuff that is tracked blow by blow by the leading biomedical researchers around the world. While you won’t be buying these products in your local drug store, this is the food chain for all the research which fuels the diagnostic, biotechnology & pharmaceutical industry. And, its impact – as with these companies – cannot be understated.
