Ultima Genomics signs development agreement with Regeneron aimed at driving the scale of genomic information for drug discovery and development

NEWARK, Calif., July 12, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ultima Genomics, Inc. (the Company) has signed an agreement with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: REGN) to further advance Ultima Genomics' sequencing architecture. Under the terms of the agreement, Regeneron will collaborate with Ultima on the development and testing of Ultima's second-generation sequencing platform, which will build upon the advances of the Company's first instrument, the UG100^™ anticipated to launch in 2023. In conjunction with the agreement, Regeneron, who is currently part of the early access program for the UG100^™, will also become an investor in Ultima.  The primary objective of the collaboration between Ultima and Regeneron is to enable affordable high-throughput sequencing for large-scale genomic analysis and to accelerate insights and discoveries that will profoundly impact life sciences research around the world.

"Regeneron and Ultima share a common goal of using science to improve human health," said John Overton, Ph.D., Vice President and Chief of Sequencing and Lab Operations at the Regeneron Genetics Center^® (RGC). "With more than 120 active research collaborations and one of the largest whole exome sequencing reference libraries in the world, we at the RGC are keenly interested in the development of technologies that streamline the drug discovery and development process. The high cost of next-generation sequencing constrains the production of genomic information – a significant bottleneck for life sciences research.  With this agreement, we hope to contribute to an affordable and scalable solution that enables the rapid advance of genomic sciences, and in turn, important medicines for patients in need."

"We founded Ultima Genomics with the mission to continuously drive the scale of genomic information," said Gilad Almogy, Ultima Genomics' founder and Chief Executive Officer. "While we will soon be launching our first instrument platform, the UG100^™, we are already hard at work developing our second platform to provide even lower cost and greater scale. We are excited to collaborate with Regeneron on this project and look forward to providing tools with the ever-increasing capability to our customers. Throughout our development, we have relied on, and are grateful for, the support, trust, and relationship with collaborators such as Regeneron, all of which are among the leading sequencers in the world."

Over the last five years, Ultima Genomics has developed a fundamentally new sequencing architecture designed to scale beyond conventional approaches and enable sequencing at a fraction of the cost of other commercially available technologies. The new architecture includes completely different approaches to flow cell engineering, sequencing chemistry, and machine learning. Ultima is currently in an early access program for the UG100^™, its first high throughput NGS instrument using the new technology architecture. The second-generation instrument will further increase the scale of genomic data and reduce sequencing costs beyond the first instrument. The timing of development and commercial availability of the Company's second instrument is not yet disclosed. 

Ultima Genomics is unleashing the power of genomics at scale. The Company's mission is to continuously drive the scale of genomic information to enable unprecedented advances in biology and improvements in human health. With humanity on the cusp of a biological revolution, there is a virtually endless need for more genomic information to address biology's complexity and dynamic change — and a further need to challenge conventional next-generation sequencing technologies. Ultima's revolutionary new sequencing architecture drives down the costs of sequencing to help overcome the tradeoffs that scientists and clinicians are forced to make between the breadth, depth, and frequency with which they use genomic information. The new sequencing architecture was designed to scale far beyond conventional sequencing technologies, lower the cost of genomic information and catalyze the next phase of genomics in the 21st century. To learn more, visit www.ultimagenomics.com

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SOURCE Ultima Genomics