SAN DIEGO, Sept. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SEQUENOM, Inc. today announced the launch of its new “Assays-by-SEQUENOM” service, which provides custom designed and quality-validated assays for users of the Company’s MassARRAY system.
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With Assays-by-SEQUENOM, researchers can choose to quickly and easily tap into the power of SEQUENOM’s MassARRAY system by outsourcing customized assay design and validation, thus decreasing the cost and lead-time to successful experiments. Assays-by-SEQUENOM utilize the Company’s existing high- throughput assay design center and its extensive experience with designing and validating assays.
“Assays-by-SEQUENOM is a complete package for laboratories that want to take advantage of the power and specificity of SEQUENOM technology without the ramp-up time of home-brew assay design,” said Toni Schuh, Ph.D., SEQUENOM’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “We expect that a significant number of our over 100 MassARRAY system installations will take advantage of this new service for customized assays. Assays-by-SEQUENOM should create a new consumables revenue stream and long-term customer relationships for the company as customers realize the convenience of relying upon us for their assay design and validation needs.”
MassARRAY system users have always been able to design their own assays and take advantage of the well known flexibility of the system, and now they have the additional option of letting Assays-by-SEQUENOM perform all the multiplexed assay design, optimization and validation to ensure their assays work the first time, every time. The new service allows researchers to bypass the critical assay optimization steps with total confidence and focus on running and interpreting experiments.
Researchers may conveniently submit their data through a customized Assays-by-SEQUENOM website within http://www.realsnp.com/. Customers may also go to the website to access the Company’s assay database, which offers monoplex assays for more than 5.7 million human single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including SEQUENOM’s analytically validated assay portfolio for several hundred thousand SNPs and the Company’s genetically validated panel of 28,000 gene-based SNP markers for genome-wide association studies.
In contrast to the industry standard 6-8 week delivery, at 12 business days, Assays-by-SEQUENOM offers one of the shortest turnaround times of any available assay design service. Each fully validated assay is Company certified with oligonucleotides that have been quality checked by MassARRAY technology and will be provided to the customer with enough reagents for the researcher to perform 1,000 reactions.
“Assays-by-SEQUENOM is a natural extension of the flexibility of the MassARRAY platform for SNP genotyping and quantitative gene expression research,” said Dr. Schuh. “All the necessary Company resources are already in place, so we are launching this value-added service without significant investment costs.”
About SEQUENOM
SEQUENOM is a genetics company dedicated to the sales and support of the Company’s MassARRAY platform and to the continued expansion of DNA analysis applications for use with this system. The Company has created high- performance DNA analysis technology that efficiently and precisely measures genetic variation. SEQUENOM has used MassARRAY technology and the Company’s extensive collections of DNA samples from diseased and healthy individuals to identify disease-related genes that affect the health of significant portions of the population. Based on its discoveries, the Company develops diagnostic content, as well as out-licenses candidate target genes for diagnostic and therapeutic product development.
SEQUENOM(R) and MassARRAY(R) are trademarks of SEQUENOM, Inc.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release including statements regarding SEQUENOM’s expectation that a significant number of its over 100 MassARRAY system installations will take advantage of the new service for customized assays, and the creation of a new consumables revenue stream and long-term customer relationships, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially, including the risks and uncertainties associated with SEQUENOM’s technologies and new products and services and other risks detailed from time to time in SEQUENOM’s SEC filings, including SEQUENOM’s Registration Statement on Form S-3, most recently filed Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003. These forward-looking statements are based on current information that is likely to change and speak only as of the date hereof.
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CONTACT: Linda Rawson Corporate Communications of SEQUENOM, Inc.,+1-858-202-9034, lrawson@sequenom.com
Web site: http://www.realsnp.com/
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