Equipment Price Wars Benefit Genetics Labs

An old-fashioned price war between two U.S. companies selling gene-scanning machines could accelerate forward-looking genetic research, researchers said.

Rivals Affymetrix of Santa Clara, Calif., and Illumina Inc. of San Diego sell equipment for high through-put genotyping — a market worth between $200 million to $350 million, The Wall Street Journal said Thursday. Most of its growth, estimated between 25 percent and 40 percent, is in gene chips and scanners used to find genes linked to cancer, asthma, autism and other conditions.

The scanners seek to identify genes that predispose people to chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer or neurodegenerative conditions. The machines are big-ticket purchases labs consider every three to five years.

Both companies last summer began cutting the price for their gene chips to gain market share, the Journal said.

Researchers told the newspaper that affordability means they can do more, bigger or different scans, boosting the chances to find genes related to diseases. Even the California-based companies said a competitive marketplace benefits patients because the competition drives innovation.