The Commercialisation of the DNA Sequencer

Abstract

The DNA sequenator was not the first instrument to be transformed into a commercial product by ABI. The company had previously launched a protein sequencer and synthesiser from Caltech’s prototypes, as well as a DNA synthesiser between 1982 and 1983 (Applied Biosystems, 1983, pp. 2–7 and 17). The history of ABI overlaps with that of a series of small companies — start-ups — which were created from university departments in the second half of the 1970s and early 1980s, mainly in the US. They were inspired by the perceived potential of recombinant DNA and attracted the interest of a group of venture capitalists who specialised in risk investments. The proliferation of start-ups led to the configuration of a new business field — the biotechnology market — which in the mid-1980s was regarded by biologists as an unprecedented instance of cooperation between academia and industry (e.g. Kenney, 1986). However, the development of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries at the turn of the twentieth century constitutes a clear antecedent.