Company Announcements

Illumina announced in May the registration of the MiSeqDx as a cleared IVD medical device in Australia.

Illumina, Merck KGaA and Genea announced in June the formation of the Global Fertility Alliance for Excellence in Assisted Reproductive Treatment for advancing fertility technologies and processes within the assisted reproductive treatment lab, including greater standardization.

ArcherDX announced in May an agreement with Illumina to develop NGS-based IVD tests for companion diagnostics that will run on Illumina’s MiSeqDx instrument.

In June, Thermo Fisher Scientific announced the Ion Torrent Developers Alliance Program to support the development and commercialization of molecular IVD and clinical research assays using targeted NGS.

QIAGEN formed a global consortium of international lung cancer experts to advise it on the design of NGS gene panels and associated workflows that target lung cancer–specific mutations.

Omicia, which provides clinical genome interpretation and reporting software, completed a $23 million Series B financing round. New investors included Roche Venture Fund.

Hamilton Bonaduz announced a strategic partnership agreement with the Human Genomics Research Group at the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel to develop new automation solutions for NGS sample preparation.

Stratos Genomics completed a $30 million Series B funding, including an additional $10 million investment by Roche (see IBO 6/30/14), following the attainment of a technical milestone.

Product Introductions

Nanopore announced in May the release of its R9 chemistry, replacing R7, as part of a new flow cell for its sequencers. R9 offers improved accuracy at faster speeds. The company also introduced the Rapid Sequencing Kit, which reduces sample preparation time to 10 minutes when used with R9 and real time base calling.

QIAGEN announced that an extensive package consisting of a QC set and verification data, including Horizon Discovery’s Reference Standards, is now offered with its GeneReader NGS system.

In June, QIAGEN introduced a liquid biopsy workflow for clinical cancer research using the GeneReader NGS system. The Actionable Insights Tumor Panel is designed for both noninvasive liquid biopsies and FFPE tissue samples.

Illumina’s Certified Service Provider Program is now known as the Propel Certification Program. It offers an affordable, expanded menu of NGS certifications, and a streamlined and flexible process.

Appistry launched a Managed Services offering to help clinical labs establish and expand NGS capabilities.