NEW YORK, Oct 10 – Sequenom said Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to sell its MassArray SNP analysis system to the Sanger Center for use in its SNP validation efforts.
The system sells for about $450,000.
The Sanger Center will initially use the MassArray system for a collaboration with the SNP Consortium to validate SNPs and to determine allelic frequencies in three distinct ethnic populations.
A representative from the Sanger Center was not immediately available for comment.
The agreement with the Sanger Center follows a recently announced collaboration between the SNP Consortium and the Human Genome Project to analyze data from the working draft sequence in order to identify and validate additional SNPs. The Sanger Center is one of three research centers to participate in this effort, which is expected to construct a higher-density SNP map for the public domain.
Two other leading participants of the Human Genome Project, The US National Institutes of Health and the German National Research Center for Environment and Health, are also using the MassArray system for genotyping.
The SNPs to be analyzed are considered a highly valuable subgroup of SNPs discovered by the SNP Consortium. To support this collaboration, Sequenom will provide assays for the SNPs of interest.
“This collaboration with the Sanger Center and the SNP Consortium is particularly significant for Sequenom because it represents an attractive revenue opportunity,” Toni Schuh, Sequenom's president and CEO , said in a statement.
Sequenom said that it has designed a portfolio of more than 400,000 assays for SNPs in the public domain to support this collaboration. The essays would also be available to existing and future customers.