Despite having a blueprint for over two decades, no other biotech company serving the R&D inputs sector has come close to replicating Illumina's success. Actually, not many companies in any biotech sector have replicated Illumina's success.

Why not?

It's important to acknowledge there aren't any apples-to-apples comparisons across time or industries. Different lab instruments have different margins, utilization rates, competitive landscapes, and value-added benefits. The same can be said for comparisons to other R&D inputs used across major biotech sectors, such as reagent kits or synthetic DNA.

Nonetheless, the absence of profitable businesses at similar levels of revenue in the broader peer group is striking. Consider how other businesses fared with revenue totals comparable to Illumina's 2006 campaign ($185 million in 2006 dollars is $282 million in 2024 dollars).

Ginkgo Bioworks (founded 2008), 10x Genomics (2012), and Twist Bioscience (2013) were born into an era of easy money. They were built like it, too. PacBio (2004) is spiraling toward bankruptcy, whether investors realize it or not, primarily because it never prioritized operating efficiency in its two-decade history. It shows, too.