MACROGEN Leads Precision Medicine By Advancing The Realization Of The "$100 Genome Age”

SEOUL, South Korea--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Macrogen Inc. (CEO Hyun-yong Jeong, www.macrogen.com) (KOSDAQ:038290), a precision medicine biotechnology company, announced on March 28 that it completed the installation of the NovaSeq 6000, the latest equipment for genetic analysis by Illumina Inc., on the network of the Macrogen Global Genome Center.

“With the release of the NovaSeq 6000 by Illumina, expectations for the ‘$100 Genome Age’ are high. Although it will take some time before the expectations are realized, there is no doubt that Macrogen, which has realized the ‘$1,000 Genome Age,’ will also lead the ‘$100 Genome Age,’”

The NovaSeq 6000 is a sequencing system Illumina introduced at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference last January, foretelling the “$100 Genome Age.” This high-tech equipment, a new platform for genome sequence analysis based on next-generation sequencing (NGS), is known to be able to analyze a maximum of 6 terabases or 60 whole genome sequencings within 2 days, which means it is five times faster than the former equipment HiSeq X(for one unit) in terms of data processing speed.

As a leader in the genetic analysis industry, Macrogen, which has been utilizing the latest analysis technologies before others and providing them for the market, employed the NovaSeq 6000 by Illumina ahead of others, installed one in its U.S. branch office and another one in the head office in Korea on March 27, and is planning to have one more within the third quarter.

Global services using the newly installed NovaSeq 6000 will begin in earnest in April after a test run. Counseling and ordering for sequencing services based on the NovaSeq 6000 will be available upon request and analysis results will be provided from early April.

With this investment, Macrogen’s capacity for genome analysis services will double and the company is expected to be able to analyze more than 8,000 terabases or 70 thousand genomes, which is equal to the top domestic companies and fifth in the world market.

“With the release of the NovaSeq 6000 by Illumina, expectations for the ‘$100 Genome Age’ are high. Although it will take some time before the expectations are realized, there is no doubt that Macrogen, which has realized the ‘$1,000 Genome Age,’ will also lead the ‘$100 Genome Age,’” Macrogen CEO Hyun-yong Jeong said.

He added, “As the cost for genome analysis goes down, research on the relationship between genes and diseases will be vitalized and the information from them will be very useful for hospitals. Macrogen will advance the realization of the ‘$100 Genome Age’ and take the initiative in the precision medicine sector.”

Macrogen has kept investing and researching in this area to expand into the clinical diagnosis and consumer markets on the basis of global technological leadership in the field of gene and genome analysis. As a result, the company launched not only Faest^TM, a next-generation antenatal genome examination service, as well as other services in obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics, but also the SHARP3^TM service with the official permit of direct-to-consumer genetic analysis. In addition, Macrogen put a lot of efforts into the development of a genetic examination panel service for cancer and is about to release it in the global market this year. In the domestic market in particular, Macrogen will open its services in line with the arrangement of related systems such as having the services covered by the health insurance system, and maximize the effect of its collaborative network for precision medicine with Bundang Seoul National University Hospital and National Cancer Center.

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