Accelerates Conversion from Microarray to Genotyping by Sequencing

Twist Bioscience Corporation, a company enabling customers to succeed through its offering of high-quality synthetic DNA using its silicon platform, has announced the acquisition of iGenomX, a company offering multiplex library preparation tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) workflows. The acquisition is expected to enhance Twist’s capabilities to support multiplex sequencing preparations across multiple markets and to accelerate Twist’s conversion of customers from static microarray platforms to genotyping by sequencing workflows.

“The iGenomX team built a robust PCR-like workflow for ultra-high throughput library construction that will further enable customers to convert from SNP microarray to an NGS-based approach,” said Emily M. Leproust, Ph.D., CEO and co-founder of Twist.

Dr. Leproust continued, “Already adopted by a number of agricultural, synthetic biology and healthcare customers, we anticipate this technology, together with our leading NGS product line and worldwide commercial infrastructure, will drive adoption of Twist NGS workflow solutions into fields that run large volumes of samples with shallow sequencing.”

iGenomX was founded in 2012 to develop and commercialize a high-throughput rapid library preparation that facilitates large sample volume with a simple workflow at enabling price points. The resulting commercial library construction maximizes laboratory capacity for many applications including population genetics, agrigenomics, microbiome and synthetic biology.
The total purchase consideration was $35 million, including an initial $500,000 cash payment and $29.5 million in Twist stock, as well as a contingency consideration of $5 million in Twist shares upon completion of certain milestones, no sooner than six months post-close.

“We expect the financial impact of the acquisition on our burn rate to be minimal for both fiscal 2021 and 2022, with revenue of approximately $4-6 million materializing in fiscal 2023,” commented Jim Thorburn, CFO of Twist.

About Twist Bioscience Corporation

Twist Bioscience is a leading and rapidly growing synthetic biology and genomics company that has developed a disruptive DNA synthesis platform to industrialize the engineering of biology. The core of the platform is a proprietary technology that pioneers a new method of manufacturing synthetic DNA by “writing” DNA on a silicon chip. Twist is leveraging its unique technology to manufacture a broad range of synthetic DNA-based products, including synthetic genes, tools for next-generation sequencing (NGS) preparation, and antibody libraries for drug discovery and development. Twist is also pursuing longer-term opportunities in digital data storage in DNA and biologics drug discovery. Twist makes products for use across many industries including healthcare, industrial chemicals, agriculture and academic research.