Febit is getting closer to settling a two-year-old legal dispute with Codon Devices over a patent that covers the manufacture of synthetic genes, and has decided to reevaluate its position in the competitive global synthetic-biology market.

"We don't want to be part of a commodity market with a lot of close competition," said Peer Stähler, Febit's chief scientific officer. "There are at least 20 companies worldwide that are competing to sell the cheapest genes."