Price wars coming to healthcare?

Any economic crisis forces competitors to fight harder for a reduced demand, and healthcare is no exception. Competition on price is one of the options available to try to attract new customers and retain old ones.

For instance, it seems like 23andme has started a price war in retail genomics. They have just slashed the price on their personal DNA test from $999 to $399 (some would say it is quite a "significant" price drop, don't you think?).

According to 23andMe, this price drop has nothing to do with our present economic situation, and they claim that next-generation DNA analysis chips have made the process of scanning a person's genes significantly cheaper. By cutting the price of its service, the company hopes to increase demand and hasten the day when a full genetic screening becomes routine medical practice... or so they say. Well, you can read between the lines if you look deep enough, I guess.

For those interested in retail genomics, here's my personal list of the companies competing in this space (probably there are some more outside my "radar" ...):

• 23andMe
• Acu-Gen Biolab, Inc
• Consumer Genetics
• Cygene Direct
• DAT Direct
• deCODEme
• Dermagenetics
• DirectLabs
• DNA Direct
• Genelex
• Graceful Earth
• Health Tests Direct
• HealthCheckUSA
• Holistic Heal
• LabSafe
• MedLabUSA
• MyMedLab
• Mygenome.com
• Navigenics
• Personalized Lab Services
• Private MD Labs
• Quixtar
• ResultsDirect
• Salugen
• Sciona
• Suracell