JP Morgan 2023: PacBio reveals more details about the new sequencer

The 41st J.
P.
Morgan Annual Healthcare Conference kicked off on January 9 in San Francisco
, USA.
After two years of online meetings, this conference was finally able to be held
offline.
Pacific Biosciences CEO Christian Henry revealed more details
about the new sequencer and other activities at the conference.

PacBio launched two new sequencers at the end of last year, namely the long-read long-term sequencing platform Revio and the short-read long-term sequencing platform Onso (see: PacBio launched two new sequencers after the Magic Red band's exit).

Henry said it has received orders for 76 Revio sequencers from 43 different customers
in 13 countries.
Most are PacBio's existing customers, but 30% of orders come from PacBio's new customers
.
"The strong demand for Revio exceeded our expectations, indicating that there is a huge demand for large-scale long-read sequencing," he said
.

According to reports, PacBio won an exclusive contract to provide sequencing technology
for a population genomics project at Mohammed bin Rashid University in the United Arab Emirates.
Researchers at the university ordered multiple Revio sequencers, as well as several Sequel IIe instruments
.
"We win
against other sequencing technologies.
We couldn't have done this without Revio," says
Henry.

PacBio has also begun accepting orders
for Onso, a short-read long-term sequencer.
Henry notes that the platform is more accurate, with 90 percent of the bases higher than Q40 (> 99.
99 percent), meaning that less sequencing is required to achieve the same results
.
In an interview before the meeting, he said at least one test customer observed a large number of bases above Q50
.

"We can see things that other technologies can't, or we can detect them with lower sequencing coverage, which means lower costs," Henry said
.

The company also launched the "PacBio Compatible" portfolio, which includes sample preparation and bioinformatics products that are validated to work with
PacBio's long-read and short-read platforms 。 Companies currently joining the network include Agilent, 10x Genomics, QIAGEN, Google Health, Hamilton, Tecan, Twist Bioscience, Jumpcode Genomics, Nvidia, Diagenode, DNAnexus, Sentieon, Miroculus, and Bugseq
.

Henry also mentioned that PacBio will collaborate with researchers from the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Tokyo to study the application
of long-read sequencing and novel bioinformatics methods in rare diseases.
"We need more and better tools for our secondary and tertiary analyses," he said, adding that PacBio will focus more on bioinformatics in 2023 "in order to maximize the value of sequence data.
"

PacBio expects revenue for the fourth quarter of 2022 to be approximately $27.
3 million, down 24%
from $36 million in the same period last year.
For the full year 2022, the Company expects revenue of $128.
2 million, slightly down from $130.
5 million
in 2021.

"Fourth-quarter revenue was below our expectations, in part because Revio replaced most of the Sequel IIe's demand," Henry said
.
However, he believes that the 2022 consumables revenue reached $60 million, which is a new record
.
"This is a very important indicator
.
The demand for HiFi sequencing is growing
at a very good rate.
”

He noted that the installed capacity of Sequel II and IIe increased to 512 units at the end of the year, and that PacBio now employs 770 people, of which 230 are in the commercial sector and 415 in research and operations
.