Several executives who earned their spurs at dominant genetics sequencing company Illumina Inc. (ILMN, Financial) hold key management positions at a firm that is planning a $100 million initial public offering.
San Diego-based Singular Genomics has former Illumina Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer David Baker on its board, in addition to President and Chief Operating Officer Dave Daly, who is also Thrive's former CEO, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Development Jorge Velarda.
The company was founded in 2016 by CEO Andrew Spaventa, CSO Eli Glezer and Baker. In a registration statement filed May 7, Singular said it is developing next-generation sequencing technology for cancer and immunology. The proprietary sequencing chemistry will support two different instruments: the G4, a benchtop, mid-throughput DNA sequencer, and the PX, an instrument that will use sequencing as a readout for applications in single-cell and spatial multi-omic analysis.
The company plans to trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "OMIC."
If Singular comes even close to duplicating the success of Illumina, it will be a big win for shareholders and all involved. The latter's stock is up 175% in the past five years to more than $386, though it has been relatively flat over the past year.
Singular is striking while the iron is hot. A total of 141 IPOs have been priced worldwide this year, more than three times for the same period in 2020, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO investment advisory firm. Moreover, investors have demonstrated they still have a healthy appetite for early-stage health care companies.
Singular will go head-to-head with not only Illumina, but other big names in the field, including Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO, Financial) and Pacific Biosciences of California Inc. (PACB, Financial).
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global next-generation sequencing market size is expected to reach $31.4 billion globally in five years, accelerating at a compound annual rate of more than 22% between 2019 and 2026. Other well-known names in the market are Roche (RHHBY, Financial), Agilent Technologies Inc. (A, Financial), Qiagen N.V. (QGEN, Financial), BGI Genomics Co. (SZSE:300676), PerkinElmer Inc. (PKI, Financial), Eurofins Scientific (ERSF, Financial) and MacroGenics Inc. (MGNX, Financial).
Singular is driving to get its first product on the market, the desktop G4 Instrument and related consumables. The G4 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2022 for research use focused on oncology, including rare variant detection in liquid biopsy tests, reported the San Diego Union-Tribune.
For the three months ended March 31, Singular posted a net loss of $23.9 million, or $2.05 per share, compared to a loss of $5.3 million, or 52 cents per share a year ago.
For full-year 2020, the firm lost $27.9 million, or $2.64 per share, compared to a loss of $12.3 million, or $1.43 per share, in 2019.
The weighted-average number of shares used to calculate earnings per share was approximately 11.7 million in the first quarter. As of March 31, Singular Genomics had $45.5 million in cash and cash equivalents and $104.6 million in short-term investments.
Disclosure: The author has a position in Illumina.
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