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Twist Bioscience, Ginkgo Bioworks Sign New Synthetic DNA Supply Agreement

NEW YORK – Twist Bioscience and Ginkgo Bioworks said on Tuesday that they have signed a new four-year supply agreement for synthetic DNA.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ginkgo has increased its commitment to purchase products from Twist and has obtained an option to access "significantly more synthesis capacity."

Financial and other details were not disclosed.

"Over the past four years, we ordered approximately 1 billion base pairs of synthetic DNA from Twist, allowing us to test hundreds of thousands of proteins across dozens of programs for our customers, resulting in many completed programs spanning vaccine manufacturing, food, flavor, fragrance, and even cannabigerol (CBG)," Jason Kelly, CEO of Boston-based Ginkgo, said in a statement. "As we grow our capabilities to meet an increasing number and variety of customer needs, we are excited to continue partnering with leading companies in our ecosystem, which includes making sure we secure the high volumes of DNA that Twist is well positioned to supply."

The deal builds on a previous supply agreement signed in 2017. For Twist's first year as a public company, the firm reported revenues from Ginkgo separately, as they were a major contributor to Twist's performance. Last summer, though, the firm reported that Ginkgo revenues had fallen below 10 percent of all revenues and that it would no longer break them out separately.

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