Revolugen Announces Distribution Agreement with Welgene Biotech in Taiwan for Fire Monkey/Fire Flower Technology

The UK genomic tools developer, RevoluGen Ltd has announces it has entered into a non-exclusive distribution agreement with Welgene Biotech Co, Ltd of Taiwan, for the distribution of its Fire Monkey/Fire Flower High Molecular Weight DNA (HMW-DNA) extraction and purification product.

Under the terms of the agreement, RevoluGen has granted Welgene the rights to promote, market and sell Fire Monkey/Fire Flower to its molecular biology users across Taiwan. Welgene is a leading life science distributor focused on molecular and cell biology that will accelerate the commercialisation of Fire Monkey/Fire Flower, particularly in the vibrant Taiwanese commercial and research markets for long-read DNA sequencing and structural genomics.

The Fire Monkey/Fire Flower kit uses spin columns to both extract HMW-DNA with an average length of 100kb or more from animal and bacterial cells and to remove the fragments of DNA smaller than 10kb. The longer the DNA that can be extracted intact, the better any subsequent long genomic sequencing reads can be. The Fire Monkey protocol extracts both DNA and RNA in just one hour, with only small samples required. It is better, faster and simpler than the competition at extracting HMW-DNA from cells.

With DNA concentrated in the 100kb Goldilocks range of lengths, its technologies improve the accuracy and efficiency of DNA sequencing in particular, long-read DNA sequencing, which is vital to resolve the extensive repeat regions found within both bacterial and mammalian genomes, and to identify structural variations impacting health and disease.

"We are pleased to add Welgene, a leader in the molecular biology supply market in Taiwan, to our growing International distribution partners. It significantly strengthens our presence in the important Asian market and we anticipate substantial sales growth based on the rapidly expanding biotech and genomics industries in Taiwan,” said RevoluGen CEO Pieter Haitsma Mulier.

Dr Yi-Shing Lin, Welgene's General Manger and Lab Leader commented: “DNA sequencing is revolutionising genomics. This genomic goldrush is being driven by new technology which is faster, more accurate and cheaper at large scale DNA sequencing. It is leading to a complete revolution in healthcare, as we are starting to see in cancer treatments where it is accelerating how we understand disease and design effective treatments.

“With more genomics companies looking to sequence long DNA, there is an increasing need to extract high molecular weight samples. RevoluGen’s product thus complements our portfolio in DNA our sequencing range to address the significant market need and ultimately enable scientific progress.”

In addition to this agreement with Welgene, RevoluGen signed a non-exclusive distribution agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany for global distribution through its MilliporeSigma division in 2019. RevoluGen retains manufacturing rights to its products, with an agreement in place with Cytivia for manufacturing at its UK site.

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