China’s most successful genome sequencing company, BGI Group, is set to gain a larger slice of the crucial U.S. market following a recent legal settlement with its closest American rival — amid concerns about data privacy and its links to the Chinese government.
After years of legal wrangling, the agreement inked last month between BGI’s U.S. subsidiary and San Diego-based Illumina has given the Chinese firm the green light to sell a key product, the CoolMPS sequencer, from August this year, and its other models from 2023 onwards. Illumina will also pay BGI $325 million for past patent infringements.
The deal gives BGI the opportunity to challenge Illumina’s largely untrammeled dominance of the market for sequencers, a cutting-edge product commonly used by research institutions and clinicians in applications such as pre-natal genetic disease testing and cancer screening. Illumina currently has an 80 percent market share globally of next generation sequencers, according to
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