RevoluGen Announces Distribution Agreement with Welgene Biotech in Taiwan for its Fire Monkey/Fire Flower Technology

London, UK – 5 October 2020 – The UK genomic tools developer, RevoluGen Ltd. (‘RevoluGen or the Company), today announces it has entered into a non-exclusive distribution agreement with Welgene Biotech Co., Ltd. (‘Welgene’) of Taiwan, for the distribution of its Fire Monkey/Fire Flower High Molecular Weight DNA (HMW-DNA) extraction and purification product.

Under the terms of the agreement, RevoluGen has granted Welgene the rights to promote, market and sell Fire Monkey/Fire Flower to its molecular biology users across Taiwan. Welgene is a leading life science distributor focused on molecular and cell biology that will accelerate the commercialisation of Fire Monkey/Fire Flower, particularly in the vibrant Taiwanese commercial and research markets for long-read DNA sequencing and structural genomics.

RevoluGen has invented a game-changing technology that extracts highly pure, long-length DNA, the important first step in DNA sequencing.

The Fire Monkey/Fire Flower kit uses spin columns to both extract HMW-DNA with an average length of 100kb or more from animal and bacterial cells and to remove the fragments of DNA smaller than 10kb. The longer the DNA that can be extracted intact, the better any subsequent long genomic sequencing reads can be. The Fire Monkey protocol extracts both DNA and RNA in just one hour, with only small samples required. It is better, faster and simpler than the competition at extracting HMW-DNA from cells.

With DNA concentrated in the 100kb Goldilocks range of lengths, its technologies improve the accuracy and efficiency of DNA sequencing in particular, long-read DNA sequencing, which is vital to resolve the extensive repeat regions found within both bacterial and mammalian genomes, and to identify structural variations impacting health and disease.

"We are pleased to add Welgene, a leader in the molecular biology supply market in Taiwan, to our growing International distribution partners. It significantly strengthens our presence in the important Asian market and we anticipate substantial sales growth based on the rapidly expanding biotech and genomics industries in Taiwan” said RevoluGen CEO Pieter Haitsma Mulier.

“Our Fire Monkey/Fire Flower product is already being used in leading laboratories across the UK, EU and USA. Users have recommended the kit for its high quality, high molecular weight DNA which makes it very suitable for long-read and other types of sequencing. The other available kits for HMW-DNA in the market being nowhere near as good as our NAIP kit” he added.

Dr. Yi-Shing Lin, Welgene's General Manger and Lab Leader commented “DNA sequencing is revolutionizing genomics. This genomic goldrush is being driven by new technology which is faster, more accurate and cheaper at large scale DNA sequencing. It is leading to a complete revolution in healthcare, as we are starting to see in cancer treatments where it is accelerating how we understand disease and design effective treatments.

“With more genomics companies looking to sequence long DNA, there is an increasing need to extract high molecular weight samples. RevoluGen’s product thus complements our portfolio in DNA our sequencing range to address the significant market need and ultimately enable scientific progress.”

In addition to this agreement with Welgene, RevoluGen signed a non-exclusive distribution agreement with Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany for global distribution through its MilliporeSigma division in 2019. RevoluGen retains manufacturing rights to its products, with an agreement in place with Cytivia for manufacturing at its UK site.

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About RevoluGen

RevoluGen is a privately held scientific research and development company commercialising molecular tools with a specific focus on rapidly extracting long and pure DNA fragments from cells.

RevoluGen’s Nucleic Acid Isolation and Purification (NAIP) products have particular applications in long-read DNA sequencing for genome assembly and long-range PCR. Fire Monkey significantly improves long-read sequencing results by extracting long-fragment DNA with a simultaneous size selection function built in to the protocol that minimises the small-fragment DNA contamination. Used independently, the size selection protocol of Fire Flower can improve the molecular ratio of any extraction kit and is compatible with all sequencing technologies.

The Company headquarters, R&D, manufacturing and direct customer sales and support are based in the UK. RevoluGen serves customers worldwide and has secured agreements with world-leading molecular biology tools companies including Merck KGaA (sales), Cytiva (manufacturing), Tecan (automation) and A4P (logistics).

For more information, please visit www.revolugen.co.uk. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIN

About Welgene

WELGENE BIOTECH CO., LTD. is a Taiwan-based company mainly engaged in the provision of genetic testing services and products. The company focuses on DNA microarray, Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and real-time quantitative PCR and other testing technologies, which are used in school research units, universities, hospitals, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The Company is also engaged in the trading of medical equipment.

The Company operates through two business segments, including Biotechnology Testing segment and Equipment Trading segment. Operating mainly in Taiwan market. Welgene Biotech was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan.

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For more information or to arrange media interviews please contact:

Sue Charles, Head Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, RevoluGen

+44 (0)7968 726585, [email protected]