Co-marketing agreement made between WaferGen Bio-systems, Inc and QIAGEN KK

WaferGen inc. and QIAGEN KK are to jointly promote WaferGen’s SmartChip qPCR System with QIAGEN’s PCR arrays.

WaferGen Bio-systems Inc. (CA, USA) is an emerging leader in the development of genome analysis systems for the life-science research and the pharmaceutical industry. Its products include the SmartChip Real Time PCR system, which enables many biomarkers to be validated and processed at the same time. The company have announced that they have entered into a marketing agreement with QIAGEN KK a subsidiary of QIAGEN NV (Netherlands) in order to jointly market each others products in Japan.

QIAGEN is a leading global provider of sample and assay technologies, which can be used to process and isolate DNA, RNA and protein from biological samples. These isolated biomolecules are then visible and ready for interpretation. QIAGEN’s next generation sequencing (NGS) platform is in the late stages of development and the company are running an initiative, to be launched in 2014 that hopes to create a an integrated NGS workflow that will combine instrumentation and consumables.

The terms of the agreement mean that QIAGEN and WaferGen will be jointly promoting and marketing the WaferGen’s SmartChip platform and QIAGEN’s NGS platform, which involves an network of products, in Japan. Speaking on the WaferGen Bio-systems press release the President of QIAGEN KK Stephane Perrey, said, “There is a substantial customer need to ramp up discovery efforts through targeted screening and confirmation, and our integrated approach will provide one-stop shopping for a variety of academic and industrial clients. We will be able to guide customers through the series of steps necessary for an effective biomarker discovery and validation program, by providing both the instrumentation and assays necessary for the accomplishment of their scientific goals. We have successfully evaluated WaferGen’s SmartChip System, and we believe that it can play an important role in our comprehensive product offering”.

Through this agreement customers will be able to plan and execute molecular biomarker discovery research projects smoothly involving NGS, where WaferGen’s SmartChip will offer a platform for high-throughput qPCR-based target validation. Speaking further on the WaferGen press release Ivan Trifunovich, President and Chief Executive Officer of WaferGen said, “Our product lines are highly complementary, together providing a total solution to our customers’ needs.”

Source: WaferGen Bio-systems and QIAGEN KK Sign Agreement for Co-Marketing in Japan.