WaferGen Biosystems said this week that it has inked a co-marketing agreement with Qiagen KK, Qiagen's Japanese subsidiary, to jointly promote WaferGen's SmartChip Real-Time PCR system and consumable chips with Qiagen's PCR assays and, eventually, sequencing products.

For WaferGen, the agreement is a "big milestone" in that it is its first agreement with a "bona fide" commercial partner, and provides the company with access to a geographic market it previously did not inhabit, CEO Ivan Trifunovich told PCR Insider this week.