Company Announcements

In January, WuXi NextCODE announced a partnership with the National Health Centre Singapore to advance population-based genomic research and precision medicine applications in Singapore, as part of a national precision medicine initiative. WuXi NextCODE will create a cloud-based enterprise data warehouse integrating large-scale whole-genome sequences, and medical and wearables data.

WuXi NextCODE announced in January a long-term strategic alliance with AbbBie and Genomics Medicine Ireland to conduct population genomics research in Ireland aimed at advancing the discovery and development of novel therapeutic approaches to a range of serious diseases. A total of 45,000 genomes will be sequenced.

GRAIL, an Illumina company, announced in January it received indications of interest to invest $1 billion for its Series B financing. A portion of the proceeds will be used to repurchase a portion of Illumina’s stake. Illumina will modify its supply and commercialization agreement with GRAIL to become a market-based agreement and will no longer be represented on Illumina’s Board. Illumina’s ownership will be reduced to slightly less than 20% of the company.

Illumina announced in January a strategic collaboration with Philips to integrate their respective sequencing systems and IntelliSpace Genomics clinical informatics platform for oncology, and coordinate marketing and sales of the resulting solutions. The solution will combine data from multiple sources, including IHC, digital pathology and lab tests, and deliver it in a dashboard view. The companies will also engage in clinical research collaborations with health systems.

In January, Illumina announced a partnership with IBM Watson Health to integrate IBM’s Watson for Genomics platform into its BaseSpace Sequence Hub and tumor sequencing process, including information to help interpret variant data produced by Illumina’s TruSight Tumor 170 panel.

In February, Illumina launched the iHope Network, a consortium of institutions committed to providing clinical whole-genome sequencing to underserved families. The consortium currently consists of Illumina, Genome.One, GeneDx, HudsonAlpha and their affiliate healthcare partners. Members have committed to a minimum philanthropic donation of 10 whole-genome tests per year (10 patients). Variants identified will be donated to public databases.

10x Genomics announced in January an agreement with PerkinElmer to jointly offer automated NGS solutions.

In February, 10x Genomics appointed Bradford J. Crutchfield as CCO. He previously served as senior vice president, Life Sciences Business Area, at QIAGEN.

In February, Oxford Nanopore responded to a patent infringement lawsuit filed in the UK by Pacific Biosciences, stating that it does not anticipate any disruption to its commercial progress as a result.

In February, Invivoscribe Technologies signed a long-term strategic collaboration agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific to develop multiple NGS-based IVD oncology tests on the Ion PGM Dx System. Invivoscribe will manufacture and commercialize these immune-oncology molecular diagnostic and associated bioinformatics software for application in liquid biopsies.

Asuragen announced in February a collaboration agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific for the development and commercialization of CE-based IVDs for Thermo Fisher’s 3500 DX Series Genetic Analyzer CS2 instrument.

In February, Congenica, maker of the Sapientia clinical genome analysis platform, announced that it raised $10 million in Series B financing. A new investor was Parkwalk Advisors.

Product Introductions

Edico Genome, in a collaboration with Dell EMC, released in January the Edico Genome bundle, a preconfigured, out-of-the-box solution for rapid analysis and efficient storage of NGS data.

Cosmos ID announced in January that its automated metagenomics analysis solution is now a built-in feature of the Thermo Fisher Cloud.

In January, Pacific Biosciences released V2 of the chemistry and V4 of the software for its Sequel System, including a new version of SMRT Cells, which improves the mean read lengths to 10–18 kb and makes the System capable of loading 80 kb sequencing libraries. The release supports users’ ability to perform low-fold structural variant detection and key targeted sequencing applications.

Illumina announced in January the launch of the NovaSeq Series, designed to allow researchers to more easily conduct large-scale genomics projects with greater sample volumes, or more breadth and depth in the genome. The instrument can sequence 3–48 human whole genomes per run. Four different flow-cell formats are available; the S1 (1T output), S2 (2 T), S3 (4 T) and S4 (6 T). The NovaSeq 6000, which runs all four flow cells, will begin shipping this quarter at a price of $985,000. The NovaSeq 5000, which runs the S1 and S2 cells, will begin shipping in early 2018 at a price of $850,000. The S2 flow cell will ship in the first quarter. The S1 and S4 flow cells are expected to ship in the third quarter. The S3 flow cell will ship in early 2018.

Illumina announced in January that it will begin shipping the low-cost Firefly sequencer (see IBO 1/15/16) by year end and that the library preparation system for the instrument will ship in 2018.

Illumina and Bio-Rad Laboratories launched in January the Illumina Bio-Rad Single-Cell Sequencing Solution for high-throughput sequencing of thousands of individual cells. It consists of the ddSEQ Single-Cell Isolator and SureCell WTA 3’ Library Prep Kit. The workflow includes primary and secondary data analysis conducted via Illumina’s BaseSpace Informatics Suite. It begins shipping this month.

Illumina announced in January a study in conjunction with The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The LeukoSEQ study will use whole-genome sequencing (WGS) as part of the diagnostic process for leukodystrophies, a rare genetic disorder. WGS will be evaluated as a first-line diagnostic tool.

In January, Diagenode announced a collaboration with Heidelberg University Hospital and the German Cancer Research Center to develop a high-sensitivity DNA amplification method for library preparation.

In a January letter to customers, Illumina announced that it will no longer sell the NeoPrep Library Prep instrument. It will continue to supply the TruSeq Nano DNA Library Prep Kits and TruSeq Stranded mRNA Library Prep Kits for the NeoPrep until January 31, 2018.

In February, SYGNIS released the TrueHelix bioinformatics service platform for NGS, delivered through a dedicated web portal. The first service launched will be the TruePure tool for validating sample purity and checks for potential sample contamination.

Bioline, a Meridian Bioscience company, launched in February the new JetSeq DNA Preparation Kit, developed in collaboration with Oxford Gene Technology, for preparing adapter-ligated DNA for Illumina sequencers. Pre-opitimized buffers provide maximum reaction efficiency and high conversion rates.

In February, BD announced an early-access program for the BD Resolve Single-Cell Gene Expression platform. The platform includes reagents that can analyze both the whole transcriptome, and targeted or custom-designed gene-specific panels. The platform includes library preparation technology and is designed for use with the BD FACSMelody flow cytometer. Full commercialization is planned for early fall.

10x Genomics released in February a new software suite for analyzing and visualizing single-cell RNA sequencing data generated by its Chromium Single Cell 3’ Solution. It features the Loupe Cell Browser for easy identification of distinct cellular subpopulations, isolation of significant genes and measurement of expression levels.

In February, Swift Biosciences introduced the Accel-NGS XL Library Prep Kit, calling it the fastest sequencing solution for whole-genome sequencing on Pacific Biosciences’ platforms. It features a four-hour workflow. The company stated it is the first company to offer library preparation solutions for all three major sequencing platforms.

Promega, in collaboration with Hitachi High-Technologies, launched in February the benchtop Spectrum Compact CE system for small batch and single-sample DNA analysis. It performs both sequencing and fragment analysis, running 32 samples at once. It features 4-capillary, 6-dye detection with prefilled reagent cartridges. Commercialization will begin in the second half of the year. Promega also released a new Sanger sequencing kit designed for the system, which features increased base-calling accuracy.

N-of-One released in February RapidInsights for Illumina’s TruSight Tumor 170. The fully automated interpretation solution reads the bioinformatics output of the genomic variants produced by the panel.

Sales/Orders of Notes

In January, Pacific Biosciences announced that China’s GrandOmics agreed to purchase an additional five Sequel Systems.

Pacific Biosciences announced in January that sequencing and bioinformatics services firm Novogene will purchase 10 Sequel Systems.

In January, Illumina announced 49 orders for its NovaSeq Series instrument. It also announced that the HiSeq X has generated over $750 million in revenue since its launch.

QIAGEN announced in January that it met its target of placing of 55­–60 GeneReader NGS Systems in 2016.

In January, QIAGEN announced that Genomics England selected its HGMD Human Gene Mutation Database for the 100,000 Genomes Project.