Foreign Giants Monopolistic Gene Sequencing Industry Chain Upstream | Domestic Manufacturers Try to Break the Board

Medical Network May 21st, 2009. As part of a collaboration with Mount Sinai Hospital in the United States, BGI plans to install the BGISEQ-500 sequencer at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute located at the hospital. This is the first BGISEQ platform in North America. This layout marks the beginning of North American users of domestic sequencing machines.

The upstream and downstream companies in the gene sequencing industry are sequencing makers, sequencing reagent consumables production companies, gene capture reagent production companies (equipment-side), sequencing service companies, bioinformatics companies, genetic testing companies, and third-party testing institutes (servers). The most market potential is also the most concentrated application of technology applications. hospital , medical inspection agencies and mass consumption areas.

At present, most domestic genes are sequenced Entrepreneurship enterprise The battlefields for killing are mainly concentrated in the middle and lower reaches. As the upstream core and key point of the whole gene sequencing industry, it is also the highest barrier in the gene sequencing industry chain. The gene sequencer was occupied by the European and American companies represented by Illumina, Life Tech and Roche. Most of the market share.

In view of the cost and technical difficulty, the number of companies that conduct sequencing equipment research and development in China is relatively small. Statistics show that currently there are only about 10 companies engaged in the development of sequencing equipment in China, and only about 25 companies involved in the research and development of consumables and reagents.

Due to over-reliance on imports, China's gene sequencing industry, whether clinical or scientific research, will face the pressure of high sequencing costs. Under the urgent demand, the sequencing equipment industry has spawned three methods of localization.

The first method is labeling. Domestic companies cooperate with European and American sequencing machine manufacturers to directly attach the brand of Chinese companies to their products. Berry and Kang entered the domestic sequencing instrument market through the joint Illumina, which belongs to OEM and localization. Ruikang's NextSeq CN500 gene sequencer uses Illumina's edge synthesis sequencing technology to ensure that the sequencing data is accurate and reliable, and can simultaneously process 96 non-invasive DNA prenatal detection (NIPT) clinical samples.

The second is the acquisition of foreign companies. The domestic gene sequencing companies acquired the intellectual property of their sequencing equipment by acquiring foreign manufacturers of sequencing instruments, and improved their own industrial layout.

In March 2013, BGI acquired Complete Genomics, a US-listed sequencer, and acquired the latter's sequencing instrument technology. BGI has also embarked on its own R&D path of the sequencer, with the introduction of BGISEQ-500 and Illumina. The NextSeq-500 is more flexible in terms of throughput than the NextSeq-500, and the latter has advantages in reading length.

The third type is completely self-owned property R&D, which is also a localization in the true sense. For example, the Shenzhen Bohai Gene committed to the three-generation sequencer technology. There are only three companies that independently research and develop the third-generation sequencing devices. In addition to Bohai genes, the other two They are Pacific Biosciences of the United States and Oxford Nanopore Technologies of the United Kingdom.

Currently, because of the high error rate and other reasons, the third-generation sequencing technology is still limited in its clinical application. However, due to its direct single-molecule detection of high reading length, it will be the main direction for future development. Whether it is the first generation sequencing Technology, due to different technical principles of different gene sequencing platforms, the scope of application, and its characteristics are also different, in a long period of time, one or two generations of sequencing technology will coexist in the market at the same time.

According to market research agency BCC Research, the global gene sequencing market will maintain rapid growth at a rate of 20% per year, and it is expected to reach a huge scale of US$ 11.7 billion in 2018. Although the number is small, there are also several domestic companies involved in this field. , trying to change the monopoly of international manufacturers.

Since June 30, 2014, the CFDA approved the listing of the second-generation sequencing device from Wuhan Huada Gene Biomedical Engineering Co., Ltd. Since the CFDA has approved the listing of nine gene sequencing devices, the BGISEQ-100 and BGISEQ-1000 genes of BGI have been approved. BGISEQ-500, DA8600 of Daan gene, HYK-PSTAR-IIA of Huainkang, BioelectronSeq4000 of Bio-Bio, Bracewell Semiconductor, and NextSeq CN500 are all second-generation gene sequencers.

There are also some startup businesses in the upstream sector that are favored by capital to obtain financing.

In April 2018, Shenzhen Bohai Gene completed a Series A financing of RMB 218 million, which was the fourth round of financing for Bohai Gene. Bohai Gene announced that this financing will be focused on building the first third generation gene sequencing instrument in Asia and Supporting the reagent production line. Bohai Gene has successfully developed the first world-leading third-generation single-molecule gene sequencing machine prototype in Asia in 2017. The device has its own independent intellectual property rights.

In November 2017, domestic high-throughput gene sequencing platform (second-generation sequencing) manufacturer Senna Bio obtained 130 million yuan of round B financing, led by Dongfang Pui Rui (Shanghai) Fund and Zhongguancun Development Group’s departure fund. Disc Investment, Jinggong Hongyuan, Neighboring Star Venture Capital and Investment, A Round of Investment Partners Universal Venture Capital Continue to Add. Innovative DNA Sequencing System and Companion Chips and Reagents Developed by Senna Biosciences, Fully Upgrading Gene Sequencing Technology in Disease Detection , Disease diagnosis and clinical application of disease screening.

tabulation: health Finance and Industry Department

The upstream also includes sequencing reagent consumable manufacturers and gene trapping reagent production companies.

Sequencing reagent supplies are matched with the sequencer, so the sequencer manufacturers are often also manufacturers of sequencing reagent consumables. The domestic manufacturers mainly include BGI, Daan Gene, Zhongke Zixin, Boao Bio, Berry Hekang, and Huaincon. Genes, Bohai gene, and so on about 25.

Gene capture technology is at the sample processing stage of high-throughput sequencing and is the upstream of detection services. For different systems disease Different probes can be designed. Its advantages are clear. It not only meets research needs, but also reduces costs. It is very suitable for the development of precision medicine. The key technology of gene capture is mainly in the hands of foreign big biotech companies, such as Roche, Agilent, Life Technologies. , IDT, Illumina, etc., The domestic professional companies known for gene trapping are only Lianchuan Bio, Aji Taikang, Mekino, and Konatai.

The industry believes that compared to foreign giants, domestic companies also have their own advantages. There are cost advantages domestic; Customization of kits is very convenient, especially for some scientific research institutes, research institutions, reagent kits in the production of fast, personalized more accurate Can significantly reduce research costs.