Has drug giant Roche finally cracked DNA sequencing?
The company has recently claimed it can quickly and accurately decode the genome, in a way that’s a major step forward for an industry that’s vital for diagnosing and treating disease. During a webinar on Thursday, Roche detailed its new DNA sequencer, which looks to complement the company’s diagnostic tests.
For all the promise, Roche is still a year away from a limited commercial release, and questions remain over the price and accuracy of the system. The company must also contend with its history of being outperformed by market leader Illumina, which even fended off Roche’s $6.8 billion acquisition attempt in 2012.
“A lot of people make the joke that Roche is where next-generation DNA sequencing goes to die,” said Shawn Baker, who runs the consulting firm SanDiegOmics. “It’s maybe a little unfair, but you can see where it comes from.”
Roche’s DNA sequencer is built on sequencing by expansion, or SBX, technology that claims to precisely detect a DNA signal while limiting background noise. It does so by converting DNA information into a long molecule called an xpandomer that’s easy to measure.
Mark Kokoris, head of Roche’s SBX technology, said the approach has been in development for 18 years.
“I like to think of this as the beginning of the technology. We’re just getting started with what’s possible,” Kokoris said during a company webinar geared toward researchers.
Roche says its sequencer can accurately generate 15 billion reads in four hours, hinting at greater speed and throughput than competitors. But the claim, among others, must still be proved out.
Further details will be released next week at the Advances in Genome Biology and Technology conference, according to Roche.
Based on the webinar, Baker said he was encouraged by data from the company’s early access partnerships, including with the Broad Institute.
“Despite the justified skepticism, what Roche showed today was an extremely compelling, fast, versatile sequencer,” Baker said.
That said, Baker said he was disappointed that Roche has yet to release the price of its DNA sequencer and the cost to sequence a genome. Roche said more information is coming.
“We are designing a system that will be priced competitively and can meet market expectations. Today is about revealing the SBX technology. We will share more about these questions as part of our product launch,” the company said in a statement to
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Roche anticipates a commercial release in 2026 that will be limited to research-use only purposes, and eventually, a larger rollout is planned. Company officials emphasized that the sequencer will be available to not just Roche customers but also the broader ecosystem. At the same time, they said the machine will complement the company’s tests and other business functions.
The company notably owns Foundation Medicine, which specializes in figuring out which therapies will be most effective for cancer patients.
“Roche is well positioned to utilize SBX technology in its drug discovery efforts, diagnostic test development efforts, personalized healthcare and companion diagnostic efforts with Roche and other pharma, and via partnership with clinical sequencing labs such as Foundation Medicine,” the company said in its statement.
Roche’s deep presence in hospitals and labs could pose a challenge to Illumina. In a statement forwarded by a spokesperson, Illumina said it knows “this space well because we built it.”
“This is a highly sophisticated scientific market with incredibly high expectations. Illumina has a track record of delivering the industry’s most accurate, complete and comprehensive view of the genome,” the company said.
Following the webinar, Guggenheim Securities analyst Subbu Nambi said Roche’s platform “appears to be a formidable competitor” to Illumina, though questions remain over Roche’s accuracy.
Roche’s sequencing by expansion chemistry was invented by Kokoris and Robert McRuer, who co-founded Stratos Genomics, a company that Roche acquired in 2020. The machine was also based on technology from Roche’s 2015 acquisition of Genia Technologies.
Apart from the acquisitions, Roche has experienced setback after setback in DNA sequencing. A year after Illumina fought off Roche’s hostile takeover, the Swiss pharma closed its 454 Life Sciences subsidiary after deciding that the technology was no longer competitive. Partnerships with PacBio, DNAe and IBM failed to produce notable results.
But Roche is betting that it finally has a product that could shake up the DNA sequencing market.
Editor’s note: This article was updated with comment from Guggenheim Securities analyst Subbu Nambi.