It is now clear that a world of opportunities exists in the DNA space and one of the companies that are exploring those opportunities is Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ: ILMN). Gene or DNA sequencing used to be a hugely expensive proposition and generally out of reach of most people.
Key Developments
However, Illumina has managed to bring down the costs of genome sequencing substantially from $10 million back in 2016 to around $1000 at this point. However, it is important to note that Illumina is trying to bring costs further down and that is, without a doubt, an exciting prospect for investors.
The road to making genome sequencing available to organizations for around $100 lies in the company’s NovaSeq platform. If that happens, a large number of organizations will then be able to use gene sequencing. However, in addition to that, the biggest opportunity for the company lies in cancer research and prevention. The company is currently trying to help researchers in figuring out the links of the gene to different forms of cancer. Additionally, gene-related research from Illumina is also expected to help researchers in devising the best form of treatment for the same.
A potentially multi-billion dollar market is there for the company if it manages to carry out its plans. At this point in time, plenty of countries are promoting gene sequencing research in order to better prevent a range of diseases. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of genetic ailments that can, in fact, be stopped by gene therapy and gene sequencing, which is why Illumina is now being regarded as a highly promising company. At the point in time, the company is the leader in this space and last year, it generated revenues of $3.3 billion to go with profits of $826 million. Analysts on Wall Street believe that the company is going to grow at an average of 16% over the next half a decade. It is also in the process of acquiring Pacific Biosciences and that could prove to be another trigger for the company’s further growth.
