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Chinese companies in the field of genetic testing are charging extremely low prices for their services in the hope of selling your "genetic secrets" to pharmaceutical companies or big data research firms for millions of dollars, reports Yicai, the website of Shanghai's China Business News.

With a crowded market due to low barriers to entry, the cost of genetic tests in China has dropped considerably to around 10,000 yuan (US$1,575) for second-generation gene sequencing and it is an open secret that it has become virtually impossible for companies to make money in the industry.

However, genetic data still has value as it remains the most valuable part of biological big data, which may be in turn used to research and develop lucrative biopharmaceutical treatments that could cost thousands of dollars, the report said.

The prime example is American personal genomics and biotech company 23andMe. The company, which is backed by Facebook billionaire Yuri Milner and Google Ventures to become a sustainable business, took 15 years to reduce the price of its genetic testing kits from US$1 million to...