Illumina, a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, is expected to reach a series of strategic cooperation intention agreements with nearly 30 Chinese genetic testing companies and business partners at the ongoing fifth China International Import Expo.

This is the third consecutive year that the company from the United States has participated in the CIIE.

Li Qing, senior vice-president and general manager at Illumina China, said the CIIE has served as an important link that closely connects the Chinese market with global enterprises.

"Over the years, the CIIE has built a tenacious bond and a circular ecology for exhibitors and buyers to promote innovation through cooperation and strengthen cooperation through innovation, and Illumina is also committed to building and expanding the industry's circle of friends in China," he said.

"Illumina aims to create new connections with more partners in various fields such as industry, academia, research, medicine, and investment through the CIIE to jointly promote a new picture of China's biogenic industry."

For this edition of the CIIE, Illumina has brought its new NovaSeq X Plus, which is making its global debut at the expo. As the company's highest-throughput, highest-capacity, and most sustainable high-throughput sequencer, this new product further reduces the cost of sequencing a single human whole genome from $600 to just $200. The sequencer can also support more large-scale sequencing, according to the company.

Since its debut on the opening day of the expo, NovaSeq X Plus has attracted extensive interest, resulting in contracts signed with companies including JM DNA, Sequanta, Novogene, Berry Genomics, Annoroad, Nanjing Jiangbei New Area National Healthcare Big Data (Eastern) Center and New Horizon Health, said the company.

"NovaSeq X Plus will serve as a new benchmark in the field of genome sequencing, opening up broad application prospects for gene sequencing in China," Li said.

At this year's CIIE, Illumina has set up a booth in the "Innovation Incubation Zone" in the medical device and healthcare exhibition area to showcase local innovations in the fields of molecular diagnosis, synthetic biology, biological materials and artificial proteins.

The strong spillover effect of the CIIE has become an important driving force for increasing local investment and accelerating the process of localization, Li noted.

In August, Illumina launched its first manufacturing base in China, and the first batch of locally-made NextSeq 550Dx clinical sequencing reagents will be delivered by the end of this year to better serve the Chinese market, said the company.