The landscape of next-generation sequencing (NGS) is undergoing a transformative shift, with the cost of sequencing plummeting to less than $100 per genome. This drastic reduction, fueled by intense competition and technological advancements, has propelled the widespread adoption of personalized medicine. This evolution holds the promise of tailoring medical interventions to individual genetic profiles for more effective and targeted healthcare outcomes, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

GlobalData’s report, “Next Generation Sequencing Market Size by Segments, Share, Regulatory, Reimbursement, and Forecast to 2033,” reveals that the surge in NGS usage, as evidenced by a 40% sales increase in major product lines from 2021 to 2022 in the US, reflects a growing trend in incorporating genetic testing into healthcare.

Tina Deng, MSc, Principal Medical Devices Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The decreasing cost of sequencing has contributed to the increased adoption of personalized medicine. As the cost of testing decreases, more healthcare providers and patients are willing to incorporate genetic testing into their medical care. This has led to the growth in the volume of genetic tests being performed.

“With affordable genetic testing, healthcare providers can gain insights into a person’s unique genetic makeup, which can play a more important role in the practice of medicine. Personalized medicine aims to tailor medical treatments and interventions to an individual’s genetic profile, leading to more targeted and effective healthcare.”

The cost of sequencing has significantly decreased over time due to increasing competition and advancing technology. The price of sequencing a single genome was $100 million in 2001. The cost has steadily decreased since the introduction of NGS, regardless of the platform type or technology.

The commercialization of new sequencing technologies, such as DNBSEQ-T20×2, has contributed to the cost reduction so that it now costs less than $100 to sequence the whole human genome. Leading NGS platform players like Illumina and Life Technologies have claimed that whole genomes can now be sequenced for less than $1,000 using their platforms. Overall, sequencing costs have largely stabilized, and high-throughput platforms have become widely available, resulting in a broader use of whole-genome sequencing for oncology.

Deng concludes: “Numerous companies are capitalizing on the need for personalized treatments by providing different NGS technologies, such as sequencing by synthesis and sequencing by ligation. The increasing and diversifying use of targeted therapies, especially in combination with each other, is likely to increase NGS usage as the industry moves away from just testing for single mutations. More recently founded companies are utilizing NGS technology for direct-to-consumer genetic testing, either through targeted analysis or whole-exome sequencing.”