Taiwanese array vendor Phalanx Biotech will launch a microarray for cytogenetics research in the second quarter, entering a market already dominated by Agilent Technologies, Affymetrix, and others.
In addition, the company will later this month introduce an updated version of its OneArray human microRNA chip, according to a company executive.
Vivien Mak, president of the firm's US operations, told BioArray News this week that Phalanx will in coming months debut a comparative genomic hybridization array for constitutional cytogenetics. She said that the CGH chip was designed to support the high-throughput screening of more than 300 developmental disorders.
Though Phalanx faces competition from the industry's largest players, it is looking to rely on its "expertise as an oligo-spotted microarray manufacturer and service provider" to carve out a niche for itself in the market, Mak said.
She did not elaborate on product details and declined to provide information regarding pricing for the forthcoming cyto product.
Later this month, Phalanx will release a new miRNA OneArray based on the content from version 18 of miRBase. The University of Manchester-hosted database released its eighteenth version in November. Phalanx most recently updated its miRNA array offering in August when it began selling miRNA arrays based on miRBase release 17.
Mak said that the firm has experienced demand for its miRNA arrays, noting that the first batch of miRNA chips based on miRBase version 17 were "sold out shortly after launch."
Phalanx also last year launched a Rat Whole Genome OneArray and a targeted rice gene expression array (BAN 3/22/2011).
The company said in a statement last week that the new product launches led to revenue growth, both in its home market of Asia and in North America and Europe, which it serves through its office in Belmont, Calif., and via distributors.
Phalanx said its US-based operations saw sales grow last yearby more than 20 percent year over year, though it did not provide revenue figures.
Mak attributed the growth to a combination of new product launches and new customers, "many of them" referred by Phalanx's first adopters.
Since it first gained attention in 2004 when it began marketing whole-genome expression arrays for $99, Phalanx has aimed to position itself as a high-quality, low-cost array vendor.
The firm's arrays are manufactured in bulk to benefit from economies of scale using the company's PhalanxJet spotting technology, specialized coating chemistry, and an automated assembly system.
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