The shifting supplier space

Just as the use of genomics and proteomics is rapidly changing the practice of drug discovery, those technologies are changing the experimental needs of life science researchers. As a result, the business plans of suppliers of reagents and instruments are evolving to keep up with their increasingly sophisticated customers.

The market changes have led to a burst of growth in the smaller companies trying to exploit experimental niches. At the same time, the life science supply chain may be poised for consolidation as the larger companies try to maintain their market share and name recognition. While these companies previously have been stratified along disciplinary lines such as molecular biology or immunology, the lines are breaking down as the field moves toward an application focus, where reagents and instruments for a particular experimental technique now cross disciplinary lines...