Solexa and New England Biolabs Announce Enzyme Supply Agreement

Solexa, Inc. has announced that it has reached an agreement with New England Biolabs Inc. for NEB to provide Solexa with certain key enzymes and other reagents for use with the Solexa Genome Analysis System.

Under the terms of this agreement, NEB will also manufacture Solexa’s proprietary sequencing-by-synthesis polymerase.

With systems already installed at leading institutes, Solexa is commercializing a next-generation sequencing technology which has the potential to produce 100-fold more bases per run, at 1% the cost, than conventional technologies.

The Solexa Genome Analysis System is designed to enable researchers to tackle a broad range of applications including whole-genome and candidate region sequencing, digital expression profiling, and small RNA discovery and analysis.

"Striking strategic partnerships with leading life science companies has been a critical component of our strategy for commercial-scale manufacture of reagents and enzymes," stated Brock Siegel, chief operating officer of Solexa.

"In New England Biolabs we have found a partner whose scientific and manufacturing capabilities and reputation are well established and unsurpassed."

"With this agreement in place, we and our customers can be confident that enzymes critical to our process, including proprietary Solexa enzymes, will be supplied by a world class-company known for its expertise in this domain."

"Having a strong relationship with a leader in next-generation sequencing technologies is of great value to NEB, allowing us to contribute to an area which has the potential to change both biological research and the practice of human medicine," stated Dr. Fiona Stewart, Business Development Manager at New England Biolabs.

"We are very pleased that our expertise in enzyme technology and reagent manufacturing has been recognized by Solexa."