Real numbers for Illumina sequencing currently hover at around 600 USD per 30x coverage human WGS (and this is pure sequencing cost, excluding data storage and

Real numbers for Illumina sequencing currently hover at around 600 USD per 30x coverage human WGS (and this is pure sequencing cost, excluding data storage and analysis). Prices are not dropping since Illumina has no real incentive at the moment. That said, Dante Labs is using a competitor (BGI) who claims to be doing cheaper sequencing (at reduced quality). Even so, Dante is currently definitely operating at a loss. That’s not a problem though since their business model probably isn’t really consumer genetics. Likely, their actual business model (like that of every major player in the field) is gathering large panels of sequence data to either analyse themselves (and then sell the insight to pharmaceutical companies) or to sell (pseudonymised or aggregate) access to companies. So, in reality, they are preparing large-scale biomedical studies. And not only are they not paying study participants (their ostensible “customers”), they are actually getting the study participants to pay for their participation. (Note that there’s nothing necessarily nefarious about this whole business. It just explains why they can offer their product to consumers “at a loss”. In reality it’s simply an investment.)