Bargain genome databases, but Australian researchers aren't buying

Australian biological researchers aren't responding in hoped-for numbers to offers of access at bargain basement rates to US company Celera Genomics' genome databases.

Lax marketing efforts, some cultural issues and a recent reorganisation of Celera's database business may all be contributing to the perceived shortfall.

An agreement struck in 2000 with Celera gave subsidised access to its databases for biological researchers financed through government bodies including the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the Australian Research Council and CSIRO.

The three-year pact is open to publicly-funded researchers until the end of the 2002-03 financial year.

So far, 26 institutions hosting 67 principal investigators have subscribed under the NHMRC's agreement with Celera.

That uptake was described as "good" by an NHMRC spokesperson, who declined to reveal pricing details, which are confidential under the terms of the agreement.

Anecdotal evidence suggests annual subscriptions under the discount offer are priced around $4000 to $8000 per seat with each contract negotiated individually.

Celera Genomics now is refocusing on the drug discovery area and responsibility for its database business is being shifted to sister company Applied Biosystems, which, like Celera Genomics, is a subsidiary of life sciences company Applera Corp.

The uptake of subscribers would have been larger if both Celera and NHMRC initially had done a better job of publicising the offer, according to Applied Biosystems' Asia-Pacific marketing manager Dan Headon.

Headon noted that large US pharmaceutical companies can pay up to $US1 million for annual access to the databases. The Australian discounts represent "a terrific deal," he said, although he could not put a specific figure on their size.

Unlike Celera, Applied Biosystems has a permanent presence in Australia which should make it easier for interested researchers to get information about the database access subsidy in future, Headon said.

The NHMRC provided anonymous feedback from users of the database service which testified to the value of the scheme. One commented that Celera data has proved "crucial to our work and has easily allowed us to remain competitive." Another said Celera data had been incorporated into six research papers which otherwise would not have been published.

However, other researchers contacted for this article believed Celera had displayed a negative attitude toward academic researchers, and regarded them as less worthwhile than commercial customers.

There was also a perception that the academic version of Celera's database offerings was not as functionally rich as the commercial version.