this is super interesting, had no idea this was happening! i assumed things were tending towards cheaper given sequencing prices were dropping, why are things rising elsewhere?
For synthesis, it’s mainly because there is a monopoly and the challenge (DNA assembly) is super boring in comparison to sexy things like DNA synthesis.
For robotics, it’s because Opentrons started scaling and needed to make more $$$ rather than staying small (fair to them, SoftBank dollars are attractive)
Generally speaking, biology is hard and uncertain, so the market isn’t as competitive as you’d imagine. Synthesis prices stagnated a little bit for a while in comparison to where they could be because Illumina didn’t have competition
For robotics, it’s because Opentrons started scaling and needed to make more $$$ rather than staying small (fair to them, SoftBank dollars are attractive)
Generally speaking, biology is hard and uncertain, so the market isn’t as competitive as you’d imagine. Synthesis prices stagnated a little bit for a while in comparison to where they could be because Illumina didn’t have competition