Ultima Genomics has claimed that its first instrument, the UG100, will sequence a human genome for under $100.
The news surprised and perhaps delighted the life sciences community, as the price to sequence a human genome using Illumina (ILMN) technology essentially plateaued once it crossed the $1,000 barrier in 2014, according to ARK Invest.
According to ARK Invest, Ultima’s UG100 is a viable and economically tantalizing alternative to Illumina’s NovaSeq. Now that it owns Grail, Illumina is competing with several of its large diagnostic customers who, for that reason, might consider a switch to Ultima. Given its high consumables margins, Illumina could respond by lowering prices, propelling the industry forward.
“Whatever the outcome, lower sequencing costs will be a tailwind to the basic and applied life science industries that are enjoying substantial secular growth,” Simon Barnett, ARK Invest analyst, wrote in an insight.
Investors looking to gain access to the lucrative and innovative health sciences industry should consider the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG ).
ARKG aims to provide exposure to DNA sequencing technology, gene editing, CRISPR, therapeutics, agricultural biology, and molecular diagnostics. These innovations can help to restructure healthcare, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and enhance quality of life.
This actively managed equity strategy seeks long-term capital growth by investing in domestic and foreign equity securities of companies across multiple sectors, including healthcare, information technology, materials, energy, and consumer discretionary, that are focused on the genomics revolution, according to the fund’s website.
Companies within this strategy aim to capture the substantial benefits of new products and services associated with technological and scientific developments in DNA sequencing, gene editing, targeted therapeutics, bioinformatics, and agricultural biology.
The fund charges a 75 basis point expense ratio and has $2.5 billion in assets under management, according to VettaFi.
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