罗氏关闭454测序业务

 

罗氏关闭454测序业务,并裁员100人.
罗氏在给GenomeWeb的声明邮件中说，“454测序仪将在2016年中被逐步淘汰，454位于康涅狄格州布兰福德的工厂也将因此而关闭。”

　　裁员100人将在未来三年中实施，“对于因此受影响的员工，罗氏致力于寻找具有社会责任的解决方案，”它补充说。

　　直到该业务被关停，罗氏还将提供454仪器、零部件、试剂和耗材的服务和支持。

　　罗氏表示，“测序是一个快速发展的技术，随着测序部门在建立一个多元化潜在测序技术的努力，罗氏致力于引入差异化和竞争力的产品推向市场，并为生命科学和临床应用提供测序产品。”

　　罗氏在2007年以1.55亿美元现金和股票从CuraGen收购了454，当时罗氏说，这笔交易将巩固454测序仪的成功，并使其能够用于体外诊断应用。收购454之前，罗氏从2005年开始就是454的独家分销商。

　　罗氏并没有透露454业务的收入情况，但在最近几年，随着其他测序技术销量的上升，454测序仪已经被推到了研究的边缘市场。最近，较低通量测序仪，如Illumina的MiSeq和Life Technologies的Ion Torrent系统进一步使得454技术变成无关的技术。

　　在过去的几年里，罗氏已作出努力，以继续参与测序技术发展的下一个浪潮。在2010年，罗氏与IBM和DNA Electronics 结成联盟，并在2012年初敌意收购Illumina，最终收购报价达到67亿美元，不过Illumina拒绝了该收购要约。

　　在Illumina那碰壁后，罗氏继续尽力抢救测序业务，据报道，在2012年12月，罗氏再次向Illumina“求爱”，但交易没有成交。

　　今年早些时候，罗氏宣布，它已经结束了与IBM和DNA Electronics合作，同时表示将停止在半导体测序和纳米孔测序的研发努力，由此导致康涅狄格州布兰福德工厂裁员约60人。

　　该公司表示，在当时，罗氏将454和NimbleGen产品整合至一个新的测序部门，涵盖了生命科学和临床诊断应用。据罗氏应用科学部负责人、新成立测序部门负责人Dan Zabrowski说，“我们完全致力于为我们的生命科学业务服务，这个决定没有对任何业务或客户产生影响，我们继续认为测序将在生命科学和诊领域扮演一个重要的角色。”

　　罗氏也没有完全放弃测序市场，上个月，该公司与Pacific Biosciences达成协议，投资高达7500万美元与Pacific Biosciences合作开发以PacBio SMRT技术为基础的诊断产品。

　　罗氏说，“我们看到了这种测序技术巨大的潜力，其提供前所未有的阅读长度、精度、速度，可以开发基于临床诊断应用的未来测序仪。”

Roche Shutting Down 454 Sequencing Business

Roche is shuttering its 454 Life Sciences sequencing operations and laying off about 100 employees, the company confirmed today.

The 454 sequencers will be phased out in mid-2016, and the 454 facility in Branford, Conn., will be closed "accordingly," Roche said in a statement e-mailed to GenomeWeb Daily News.

The 100 layoffs will take place during the next three years, and, "Roche is committed to finding socially responsible solutions for the employees affected by these changes," it added.

Until the business is shut down, Roche will provide service and support to 454 instruments, parts, reagents, and consumables.

"Sequencing is a fast-evolving technology," the firm said. "With the continuous efforts of the sequencing unit in building a diverse pipeline of potentially differentiated sequencing technologies, Roche is committed to introducing differentiated and competitive products to the market and offer[ing] a sequencing product pipeline for both life science and clinical applications."

Roche bought 454 from Curagen in 2007 for $155 million in cash and stock, saying at the time the deal would solidify its access to future 454 sequencers and enable it to use the tools for in vitro diagnostic applications. Prior to the purchase, Roche had been 454's exclusive distributor starting in 2005.

Roche does not break out revenue figures for the 454 business, but in recent years, with the ascent of other sequencing technologies, the 454 instruments were pushed to the research margins. More recently, lower-throughput sequencers such as Illumina's MiSeq and Life Technologies' Ion Torrent systems have further moved the 454 technology toward irrelevance.

Over the past few years, Roche has made efforts to stay involved with the next wave of sequencing technologies in development. It forged alliances with IBM and DNA Electronics in 2010, and in early 2012 it made a hostile bid for Illumina that eventually reached a price tag of $6.7 billion — a bid that was rejected by Illumina.

After being rebuffed by Illumina, Roche continued trying to resuscitate its sequencing operations, and in December 2012, reports surfaced that Roche was again courting Illumina, though no deal materialized.

Then, earlier this year, Roche announced it had ended its deals with IBM and DNA Electronics, and said simultaneously it would shut down its R&D efforts in semiconductor sequencing and nanopore sequencing, resulting in about 60 layoffs at the Branford site.

The company said at the time that it was consolidating its 454 and NimbleGen products into a new sequencing unit covering both life science and clinical diagnostic applications. Dan Zabrowski, head of Roche Applied Science, who was to head the new sequencing unit, told In Sequence then, "We are fully committed to [our] life science business, and this decision did not have an impact on any of our businesses or customers. We continue to think that sequencing is going to play an important role in life science and in the clinic."

Roche is not abandoning the sequencing space entirely, though. Last month the firmforged a deal for up to $75 million with Pacific Biosciences to develop diagnostic products based on PacBio's SMRT technology.

"Roche sees great potential in this sequencing technology which offers unprecedented read length, accuracy, and speed for the development of future sequencing based applications in clinical diagnostics," Roche said.