Overview
Currently, there are over 85 companies in the global market, including 23andMe. Right now the market has momentum and is supposed to keep growing through 2024. The market is fragmented with no dominant companies, but still highly competitive.There’s 75,000 genetic tests in the market and is supposed to increase by 10 genetic tests per day for the next four years. Currently, countries like United States, China, and Japan are seeing the most growth in the industry and should continue to do so. Untapped markets like India and Australia also provide opportunities for companies like 23andMe.
Supporting industries
Although relatively new technology, genetic testing is growing rapidly and poses the opportunity for a great amount of change not only by creating a new market but by changing existing markets as well. 23andMe offers an Ancestry Service product but they also offer a second tier product that includes health. This allows for users to receive genetic health risk reports (late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, BRCA1/BRCA2), carrier status reports (cystic fibrosis, sickle cell Anemia, & hereditary hearing loss), as well as wellness reports, and trait reports.
This ushers us to a new era in health care, one that was discussed in the Ted Talk Radio Hour about big data. This is the beginning to knowing all of your health information at the touch of a button and being able to strategically plan to optimize your life and your health. Right now it’s something people do for fun or because they are curious, but someday people may using this technology to plan their lives around the genetic component for Type II diabetes, it can change the way people decide to live their lives.
It’s not just the healthcare industry that may change, but also other industries such as insurance. If we are able to know about our future through genetic testing then it leaves a lot ethical questions unanswered, but we are already gearing up for this change. With such a large market, particularly in the U.S. legislature is already being passed regarding genetic testing technology. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) was passed for the sole purpose of protecting people that undergo these services. Although genetic discrimination is still a real fear for people.
The future of genetic testing
The future of the market is big, aforementioned is the large amount of growth and accessibility to come in the next 5 years. Legislature is already being passed. Currently 23andMe is a leader, the market is worth 928 million dollars currently and it will be up to 23andMe to use the data they collect and their current momentum to keep moving forward in the market.
In 2013, prior to a Supreme Court ruling 4300 genes were patented. This gave several companies exclusive rights to the genetic testing of this. This shifted the market greatly and we will be able to this market grow with the development of this technology. Not just the market, but our accessibility and consumer involvement. In 2013, I didn’t know anyone that had gotten their DNA tested but today I have had several family members receive genetic testing.
Companies are even starting to specialized and we will more than likely see this become more common due to the vast amount of genes in the human body (20,500). There are companies that strictly test ancestry, some that only focus on cancer genes, and much more. So the market in five years due to the shear amount of companies involved will see large growth, more specialization, and of course will reach more consumers.
Final project 