Sequencing rookie Oxford nanopore will break up with Illumina

Source: Oxford nanopore Technologies Co., Ltd (hereinafter referred to as Oxford), the minion sequencer of Biostar 2013-06-13, said in its annual report yesterday that the commercialization agreement it signed with Illumina company would end on June 30, 2016 Two years ago, Illumina asked for arbitration on the terms of an agreement signed with Oxford in January 2009, and today's decision has something to do with it According to Oxford's annual report, the two companies rescinded the arbitration in April and agreed to modify the commercialization agreement Under the initial commercial agreement, Illumina will exclusively promote, sell and distribute products developed on the basis of Oxford's so-called base technology, a nanopore sequencing strategy that couples nucleic acid exonuclease with protein nanopores In addition, Illumina invested 11.9 million pounds ($18.5 million) in exchange for a minority stake in the company However, Oxford has developed another nanopore sequencing technology, strand sequencing, in which DNA is read directly as it passes through the nanopore At last year's AGBT conference, the company first demonstrated chain sequencing technology, gridion and minion Oxford said the commercialization of the technology does not involve Illumina The commercialization agreement between it and Illumina does not cover the chain sequencing technology, but Illumina also has the right to negotiate if Oxford wants to commercialize the technology through a third party or authorize the assets related to the technology In 2011, there was a dispute between Illumina and Oxford over the terms of the agreement, and Illumina submitted an application for arbitration to the state of New York According to Oxford's annual report, in April this year, the two companies agreed to cancel the arbitration, modify the commercial agreement, pointing out that the agreement will be terminated on June 30, 2016, and "Oxford nanopore has no obligation to spend any more time or resources to develop base (exonuclease sequencing) technology" Illumina retains the right to negotiate the technology of Oxford chain sequencing until December 31, 2016 However, Oxford said it had no intention of commercializing the technology through a third party Oxford nanopore declined to comment on the incident, saying it was a legal matter Illumina also declined to comment Ross muken, an analyst at ISI group, said he did not see the breakdown of the relationship between Illumina and Oxford as a significant development opportunity for Illumina's shares, as most investors have been skeptical of the success of Oxford in the past nine months "We still see Oxford as an attractive company with a compelling technology, but the technical complications of nanopore sequencing make the commercial viability of the product extremely uncertain," he said