NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Sequenom today said that it has entered into a three-year supply agreement with Illumina for sequencing equipment and consumables.
Sequenom and its subsidiaries will purchase the Illumina products for use in developing its non-invasive trisomy 21 test. In addition, the firms intend to work collaboratively toward the submission of regulatory clearance of an in vitro diagnostic test for detecting fetal chromosomal abnormalities.
Sequenom has said that it plans to launch its SensiGene T21 test as a laboratory-developed test at the end of this year or in the first quarter of 2012. The firm also had previously disclosed that it had completed a validation study of its test on the Illumina HiSeq platform in 2,000 high-risk pregnancies, which will serve as the basis for the LDT.
"This agreement is an important step in bringing our proprietary trisomy test to market, giving us the scalability, speed to market, and supply chain necessary to address the commercial opportunity of our noninvasive prenatal test for trisomy 21," Sequenom Chairman and CEO Harry Hixson said in a statement.