10x Genomics (10x) is a US-based life science technology company that manufactures genomic and cell analysis technology for scientific research applications. Specifically, the firm’s products and offerings cater to end-users conducting bulk, single-cell and spatial biology analyses. Due to being part of the research scientific tools market, 10x’s co-founder and CEO Serge Saxonov, Ph.D., presented at the JPMorgan Healthcare 43rd Annual Conference on January 13. The presentation aimed to provide an overview of the company’s portfolio, highlight the high points of its 2024 financial performance, and outline its operational and sales strategies for 2025. Here, we provide a summary of the presentation.

Main Corporate Strategies

The underlying goal of the presentation was to show 10x’s attempts to expand its presence in the scientific tools market. Specifically, the firm implemented various corporate tactics in 2024 to show that customers can use its products and offerings beyond basic research applications in the academic and biopharmaceutical end-markets.

For instance, in 2024, 10x launched a new system for each instrument franchise. Specifically, the company released Chromium GEM-X in February 2024, the latest addition to its Chromium line for single-cell partitioning and barcoding. In March 2024, within the spatial biology business, 10x introduced the newest Visium product offering for spatial analysis, Visium HD, and in May 2024, it launched the latest Xenium single-cell spatial offering, the Xenium Prime 5K assay. The change in product mix in a short timespan did cause hesitancy from customers, according to Dr. Saxonov. He states,”This did entail some pausing among the customers as they evaluated the new products and decided whether they should switch over their project.” In fact, annual 2024 system sales experienced a double-digit plunge to $92.7 million, which was attributed to the change in product lines. In contrast, the consumables business landed in positive territory, with sales growing low single digits to $493.4 million.

In hand with the product launches, 10x also announced a sales department reorganization to maximize its growing portfolio’s sales potential. The company is focusing on the biopharma end-market due to 10x wanting to increase its company sales contribution from biopharma customers from 15%–20% to approximately 50%. The department is expected to be fully staffed by the middle of 2025. This includes hiring more sales employees for the Xenium franchise.

Regarding sales tactics, 10x lowered the prices of its single-cell systems. The price changes stem from wanting sales to weather potential market or macroeconomic challenges and to encourage customers to use the instruments for various projects.
However, Dr. Saxonov noted these new changes have caused “near-term challenges” yet sees them as investments for the future. Ultimately, 10x concluded 2024 in negative territory, with its annual sales recording a low single-digit decrease to $610.8 million and an operating loss of $194.6 million, as compared to an operating loss of $265.3 million for 2023.

End-Market- and Application-Related Guidance

In the presentation, 10x emphasized increasing its market presence in the biopharma end-market as detailed in the aforementioned corporate strategies.

In the presentation, 10x predicts two avenues of revenue growth in the biopharma sector. For instance, Dr. Saxonov predicts that both the single-use and spatial biology businesses can meet drug development needs. He stated, “There is now increasing evidence, compelling evidence, of the utility of single-cell and spatial [biology] across the entire process of drug development, from target identification to drug discovery to pre-clinical through clinical trials.”

In the academic market, 10x foresees pockets of growth in the mainstream biology and translational research sectors. Dr. Saxonov noted that the newly launched single-use and spatial biology systems meet the need for FFPE, fake samples and fixation applications in the translational research sector. He stated, “We started with these technologies very much in the realm of basic science, and over the past years, it’s been expanding more in the translational uses, and especially with the recent advances we’ve made on the product side, with our arrival of technologies that are compatible with FFPE, fake samples, other advances we have made. There’s more and more uses within translational research, and there’s a huge opportunity for us to grow forward, to go forward in that area.”

Also, Dr. Saxonov cited the Chromium consumable, the Gem-X plus Flex Gene assay, as a solid sales driver in the biopharma end-market, specifically for large-scale CRISPR screening-related activities. Market conditions such as “the falling cost of sequencing” and “advances in single-cell and advances in algorithms and data analysis” were highlighted as positive indicators.

Long-Term Outlook

During the Q&A portion of the presentation, Dr. Saxonov provided some insight into how 10x could perform in 2025. First, he does not expect macroeconomic challenges to improve or worsen for the year but to stay the same. In addition, Dr. Saxonov does not foresee any positive impact from the newly organized sales department until the middle of the year.

Also, one investor inquired about the 10x’s exposure to customers who rely on NIH funding if funding was to decrease. Dr. Saxonov stated that usual sales contributions from academic customers utilizing NIH funding are relatively small. He further explained, “We are heavily weighted toward academia. Despite that, the fluctuation [of the] NIH only [has] a modest impact on our business.”

Lastly, Dr. Saxonov had an optimistic but cautious long-term outlook for 10x’s future. He emphasized in the presentation the company’s low price point for its instruments. In addition, he highlighted AI as another market opportunity, stating the company was working with customers to build large AI biology models of cells, molecules and tissues.

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