Single Nucleotide Polymorhpism Analysis Market Growth Predicted Following Passage of Nondisclosure Legislation

The recent passage of the U.S. Genetic Information Nondisclosure Act (GINA) should alleviate privacy concerns surrounding the use of genetic testing, and create new market opportunities for technologies such as single nucleotide polymorhpisms (SNP) analysis, according to a recent report.

SNPs, which are variations at a single site in DNA, have become attractive for several reasons--they are numerous, stable, easy to score and account for 80-90% of genetic variation, which makes them suitable for searching of correlations between genotype and phenotype. That means SNP analysis could indicate the likelihood of a disease in a patient or the effectiveness of a drug therapy and thus could have useful applications in pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics, and clinical testing, according to a new report from Kalorama Information (New York, NY, USA), a market research company.

Mostly performed in core labs, SNP analysis has been adopted in most of the same places that do sequencing and polymerase chain reactions (PCR), but with a slightly different focus probably because of the higher costs involved, as well as the different advantages it offers. The emphasis of most research has been on finding near-term uses for SNPs in diagnostics, biotechnology, and drug development as opposed to pursuing basic research questions.

"The most significant barrier to the future of SNPs, or any genetic analysis, is the concern for privacy,” said Bruce Carlson, publisher of Kalorama Information "Costs of technology will tend to go down over time, but if patients are afraid to get tested because they think it will affect them down the line, that would stunt growth. GINA, once signed into law, could go a long way towards reducing concerns.”

Kalorama expects demand for SNP analysis to be strong, due to the many applications with established value in the life sciences. Revenues of US$625 million in 2007 are expected to grow by a solid double-digit annual growth rate to over $2.2 billion by 2013. Most of this revenue will be consumables, with software and instruments comprising the remainder.

Kalorama Information supplies independent market research in the life sciences.


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