NEW YORK, April 19 - The market for functional-genomics technologies will swell from nearly $1 billion this year to more than $2 billion by 2007, according to a new market report. But the growth may also hurt one of the industry's biggest players.
The report, produced by Front Line Strategic Consulting, says that genomic technologies like microarrays, gene expression, and knockout systems will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 15 percent in coming years.
In particular, the shift from target identification to target validation will drive a 22-percent annual growth rate in non-array expression technology. That market, according to the report, will top $500 million by 2007.
Front Line also predicts rough going for market-leader Affymetrix. Currently, Affy dominates the market with a 25-percent share, thanks to the prominent role of microarrays in the functional-genomics marketplace.
By 2007, the report holds, Affymetrix will be outstripped by Applied Biosystems and Gene Logic as microarrays are replaced by technologies that are more useful for drug-target validation.
Functional genomics represents a great hope for drug developers looking to fill pipelines. But huge volumes of data--and the proliferation of companies and software programs analyzing the data--threaten to swamp the widespread adoption of these technologies, says the report.
Front Line Strategic Consulting is a market consultancy firm based in Foster City, Calif.