On Wednesday night the New England Journal of Medicine published a study showing that a new, DNA-sequencing based blood test provides a dramatic improvement in accuracy at screening for Down syndrome and a second, deadly disorder. That could open up a $6 billion market to the biotechnology companies that are already marketing these tests.
Each year in the U.S. there are 6.6 million pregnancies and 4 million births, according the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. The list prices of the tests, which are sold by four different companies, range from $700 to $2500. Assuming that pricing settles in the middle of that range and that there are 5 million women who choose to have the test, that would be a $8 billion market.
