Genomics Industry

Now that the sequence data is available and placed in the public domain, companies have been created to "mine" the data, that is, to analyze the genomic sequences to identify genes, their function, and their relationships to health and disease processes. Companies pioneering in this area included Sequana and Millennium Pharmaceuticals (although Sequana did not survive as an independent company). Once genes were identified as relevant to specific disease processes, some of the companies in this sector focused on discovering and developing small molecules, antibodies, proteins, or a combination of the three, in search of drugs that will target the consequences of the defective gene or dysregulated pathways.