Novogene, AITbiotech Collaborate

Novogene Corporation Ltd has announced a joint venture with AITbiotech Pte Ltd to establish a high-throughput (HTP) next-generation sequencing and R&D Centre in Singapore. The Singapore center, NovogeneAIT Genomics Singapore, will deliver NGS services using Illumina’s latest HiSeq X Ten sequencing system. NovogeneAIT Genomics Singapore, which will include a team of NGS professionals highly skilled in both wet-lab and bioinformatics, will provide cutting edge NGS and research services to the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) and South Asia region.

Under the joint venture, Novogene will invest in research and development of next-generation genetic testing products and services, especially in oncology. NovogeneAIT Genomics Singapore will embark on research and development collaborations with leading research institutes in Singapore. It is presently in discussions with such institutes and expects to announce initial collaborations in the near future, including a couple of large projects with a research entity in Singapore for the sequencing of whole human genomes.

“I am very excited and pleased to announce this significant joint venture and the formation of NovogeneAIT Genomics Singapore,” stated Dr. Ruiqiang Li, CEO of Novogene Corporation. “Our joint venture with AITbiotech represents a key milestone in Novogene’s strategy to become a truly global high-throughput next-generation sequencing services provider. With the addition of this center, we will now have three HTP NGS centers around the world, including China and the U.S.” “We are extremely excited about the opportunity to work with a leading high-throughput next-generation sequencing services company like Novogene,” said Alex Thian, AITbiotech CEO.

“AITbiotech sees this joint venture as a model of collaboration between a global company and a smaller local enterprise to jointly penetrate the large, complex ASEAN and South Asian scientific services and diagnostics markets. Our locally based technical and business expertise, as well as our established relationships in the region, will help Novogene optimize its investment and expedite business development for NovogeneAIT Genomics Singapore. This investment will be an important addition to the genomics research infrastructure in Singapore. It will help to accelerate and increase the scope of genomics data generation by public research institutions in a very significant manner.”