Fluidigm and Next Gen Diagnostics Enter into Agreement to Improve the Efficiency of Pathogen Sample Preparation for Microbial Whole Genome Sequencing

Enabling Low-Cost, High-Volume Sequencing of Drug-Resistant Pathogens for Hospital Infection Control and Surveillance

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. and HINXTON, United Kingdom, March 03, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fluidigm Corporation (Nasdaq:FLDM), an industry leader in microfluidics technology, and Next Gen Diagnostics (NGD), a Wellcome Sanger Institute-based leader in the automation of pathogen bioinformatics, today announce an exclusive agreement that enables NGD to utilize the Fluidigm Juno system for pathogen whole genome sequencing (WGS) sample preparation. 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. Using Fluidigm microfluidics technology, NGD plans to update its sample preparation workflow upstream of microbial sequencing in the third quarter of 2020 to further reduce running costs and accelerate market penetration.

“Our partnership with Fluidigm will allow NGD to offer low-cost and high-throughput WGS for widespread use in hospitals,” said Paul A. Rhodes, PhD, founder and CEO of NGD. “By combining the cost reductions enabled by NGD’s full bioinformatic automation with the Juno microfluidic sample preparation system, we can offer hospitals and public health laboratories the power of WGS at unprecedentedly low cost, enabling detection of pathogen transmission and surveillance of the spread of drug-resistant pathogens.”