Fluidigm, Next Gen Diagnostics Improve Genome Sequencing

Fluidigm Corporation (NASDAQ:FLDM) and Next Gen Diagnostics (NGD) announce an exclusive agreement that enables NGD to utilize the Fluidigm Juno system for pathogen whole genome sequencing (WGS) sample preparation.

As quoted in the press release:

Under the terms of the agreement, Fluidigm will receive milestone payments starting in 2020 and additional revenue over five years.

Although whole genome sequencing provides unique power to accurately detect pathogen transmission, its widespread use in hospitals has been inherently limited by the overall cost per sample, as well as lack of automation and bioinformatic solutions to support the processing of high sample volumes.

Providing extensive expertise in the analysis of pathogen DNA, NGD has selected industry-leading platforms to bring high-volume, low-cost pathogen sequencing to address the growing global hospital surveillance solutions market, estimated to be more than $400M per annum today. With the goal of expanding this market using whole genome sequencing, NGD has significantly reduced both the costs downstream of pathogen sequencing and time to results by automating bioinformatic analysis performed post-sequencing, from quality control to result generation and assessment.

Click here to read the full press release.