Life scavenges a lot of the available chemical energy, making it less likely for a replicator molecule to interact with the necessary raw materials.
edit: It also might tend to scavenge replicator molecules themselves.
edit: It also might tend to scavenge replicator molecules themselves.
The most interesting answer that I hope comes out of this research is how sensitive the process is that leads to the creation of these molecules. If it's robust and simple, we can expect to find life scattered all over the universe. If it's extremely dependent on conditions found only in a narrow window of time on Earth, the picture is probably much more lonely.
I suppose you can look at viruses as replicator molecules that have adapted to a (relatively) cell heavy environment.