Alex Philippidis Senior News Editor Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

Meet the top dogs of Dx.

Molecular diagnostics has grown to a sizeable market, though consensus has proven elusive when it comes to how sizeable. One report released in March offered a market size of $4.476 billion for last year (Grand View Research), while another pegged the market even higher in 2013 at $5.5 billion (Kalorama Information). The latter is more in line with Frost & Sullivan’s 2012 forecast that molecular diagnostics will grow this year to more than $6.2 billion in total revenues (Frost & Sullivan).

Whatever the size, molecular diagnostics is a growing market, with a growing number of players—not only biopharma giants like Roche and Abbott, but numerous companies that have found their niches in tools and technologies. They are expected to be joined by up-and-comers such as Xagenic, which on May 20 was honored with the 2014 North America Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation Leadership for its fully automated diagnostic platform, designed to enable widespread decentralized testing to be performed outside of clinical laboratories. Xagenic has raised more than $30 million in financing since 2012, of which $20 million in Series B funding was announced in December.

Following is a list of 14 top public molecular diagnostics companies ranked by revenue reported in 2013, either companywide or for molecular diagnostics operations in the case of companies with broader operations.

Two public giants with a presence in molecular diagnostics could not be ranked. Siemens disclosed that the “diagnostics” business of Siemens Healthcare generated $5.383 billion (€3.942 billion) in revenue, but does not offer a breakdown of that sum that would reveal how much of that total reflected molecular diagnostics activity. One possible clue may be found in the $500 million price that bankers representing Siemens were rumored to have asked would-be buyers for the German conglomerate’s microbiology unit, according to a March 19 Reuters report for which Siemens declined comment.

Also not ranked was GE Healthcare, which during a March 18 investor presentation by its president and CEO John Dineen disclosed that it generated $3.7 billion in global orders from “molecular medicine” customers in 2013, without disclosing actual revenue. Even if all those orders did go through, it may not offer a complete picture of the size of GE’s molecular diagnostics business, since the company includes “molecular imaging” not in its “molecular medicine” segment, but within the $9.5 billion “diagnostic and clinical equipment” segment of its Diagnostics business.

#14. Agendia

Revenue: $15 million in 20121

#13. Foundation Medicine

Revenue: $29.2 million

#12. bioMérieux

Revenue: $106.5 million (€78 million)2

#11. Grifols

Revenue: $177.991 million (€130.339 million)3

#10. Genomic Health

Revenue: $261.6 million

#9. Cepheid

Revenue: $401.3 million

#8. Abbott Laboratories

Revenue: $473 million4

#7. BD (Becton, Dickinson & Co.)

Revenue: $606 million5

#6. Myriad Genetics

Revenue: $613.2 million for fiscal year ended June 30, 2013

#5. Qiagen

Revenue: $651 million6

#4. Agilent/Dako

Revenue: $750 million7

#3. Hologic

Revenue: $1.156 billion for fiscal year ending September 28, 20138

#2. Illumina

Revenue: $1.421 billion

#1. Roche

Revenue: $1.756 billion (CHF 1.571 billion)9

Figures in non-U.S. currencies converted to U.S. dollars on May 23 via www.xe.com.

Notes:
1 2013 revenue figure unavailable at deadline. Agendia’s President and CEO David Macdonald projected revenue would double to $30 million in 2013, according to an article published last year in the Orange County Register. (See: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/agendia-501399-company-test.html) Agendia spokeswoman Liz Dowling would not furnish a 2013 revenue figure citing the fact the company is privately held, and would not confirm the published 2012 figure.
2 Reflects “Molecular Biology” sales.
3 Reflects revenue reported by Grifols’ Diagnostics division.
4 Reflects “Molecular” portion of Abbott’s Diagnostics core business.
5 Reflects revenues from “Diagnostic Systems” portion of BD Diagnostics segment.
6 Reflects net sales from Molecular Diagnostics customer class, which “accounts for approximately 50% of net sales in 2013,” according to Qiagen’s Form 20-F for 2013.
7 Reflects net sales from “Diagnostics & Clinical” end market, which according to Agilent accounted for 11% of total net sales between Q4 2012 and Q3 2013, when Agilent generated a total $6.815 billion. Agilent disclosed the percentage in a “fact sheet” detailing the effect of plans to spin out its electronic measurement businesses into a new company named Keysight Technologies.
8 Reflects revenues from Diagnostics principal reporting segment, which rose 63% from 2012, primarily due to the inclusion of product sales from Gen-Probe products acquired with the company in 2012, “which contributed $483.1 million of additional revenue in fiscal 2013.
9 According to Roche’s 2013 Annual Report, molecular diagnostics accounted for 15% of the total $11.715 (CHF 10.476 billion) in 2013 sales generated by its Diagnostics division.

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