Peter,
I don't think we have any real competition right now in the area of large-scale gene expression information. I'm not aware of any company that has a program on the market or in development that would be comparable to our GeneExpress(TM) program.
That said, Celera (a tracking stock division of PE) and INCY are the companies we keep a close eye on. CRGN and privately held Digital Gene have technologies similar to READS, but we believe we have a superior patent position and have had more commercial success than those companies. MLNM, HGSI, GZMO and many of the other "genomics" companies have a very different business plan than ours; they seek to become drug companies.
The major challenge facing Gene Logic at present is the launch of our first GeneExpress database. We expect to begin receiving subscription revenues in the second half of 1999. But that will depend on our ability to continue to generate gene expression data in a wide range of tissues, continue to develop the accompanying bioinformatic software tools, and successfully market the database to pharmaceutical companies.
This message contains forward-looking information, including a statement about sales of subscriptions to the GeneExpress databases. Such statements reflect management's current view of future events. Actual results may differ materially from these projections because of a number of factors, including risks related to competition, technological advances, technological challenges in developing genomic database products, the extent to which the pharmaceutical industry uses genomic information, market acceptance of the GeneExpress databases, the company's ability to enforce its intellectual property rights, and the impact of the intellectual property rights of others. There is no assurance that sales of subscriptions to the GeneExpress databases will occur in 1999 or at all, or that revenues will continue to grow. The success of the GeneExpress product line will depend in part on the ability of Affymetrix Inc. to supply adequate quantities of high-quality GeneChip(R) arrays. These risk factors and others are more fully described in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 1998, and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Steve Push
VP, Corporate Communications
Gene Logic Inc. |
