Chinas Selling Genetically-Modified Mice for $17,000 a Pair

Sacks of pungent animal feed cram the corridors of a Cyagen Biosciences Inc. center for laboratory mice in southern China, maximizing space for rodents that sell for as much as $17,000 a pair.

Demand is skyrocketing in China for animals that mimic the diseases of humans. President Xi Jinping’s drive to turn the country into a biomedical powerhouse by 2025 has pushed the country deeper into drug discovery and to the forefront of genetics. That’s helping fuel a global market for gene-altered mice predicted to expand 7.5 percent a year to top $1.59 billion by 2022.

Cyagen is raising 8,000 mice and 2,500 rats in a pathogen-free facility in a science park on the outskirts of Guangzhou. It’s also converted a former clothing factory near Shanghai, enabling the 13-year-old company to supply another 100,000 custom-bred laboratory animals to universities and pharmaceutical companies undertaking everything from basic scientific research to complex drug-development projects.

“At any time, we have 1,000 projects ongoing,” said Cyagen founder and Chairman Lance Han, 52, during a tour. The center’s most popular -- and expensive -- mouse lines are based on the humble Mus musculus, the domesticated house mouse species, with key genes in certain tissues missing or disrupted to model diseases ranging from diabetes to prostate cancer.