On February 26, Inmena (Illumina,NSDQ:ILMN), the world's largest provider of genetic testing equipment and testing consumables, announced that Zheng Lei will serve as global senior vice president and general manager of Greater China and become a member of the global executive management team. Public information shows that Zheng Lei has more than 25 years of experience in the medical and health field and was the chairman and president of Xi'an Janssen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.

In the entire gene testing industry chain, the R & D and manufacturing of upstream gene sequencers is the core and most irreplaceable link in the industrial chain. Hu Geng, co-founder of Qi Carbon Technology, a new-generation gene sequencer company, told the reporter of ''Daily Economic News'' that the competition in China's gene testing market is very fierce. Because of the competition for domestic equipment, illumina will decline in the Chinese market. Continue to decline. Among the domestic equipment, the second-generation sequencer made by Huada Zhizao (SH688114, stock price 71.58 yuan, market value 29.751 billion yuan) has the fastest growth, mainly due to the advantages of policy, price and localized service. High-end equipment is still dominated by Illumina and Syme.

Inmina Welcome New General Manager of Greater China

The "Daily Economic News" reporter learned that after Li Qing left office in September last year, Ma Haiyan, vice president of China sales, was acting as the general manager of Minor Greater China. With the arrival of Zheng Lei, Inmina ushered in a new market leader in Greater China.

Data show that during his several management positions in Xi'an Janssen, Zheng Lei led teams in many Asian countries and regions to achieve double-digit performance growth for many years in a row, and successfully promoted the landing and operation of a number of important strategic projects. At the same time, she focused on promoting the development strategy with innovation as the core, promoting the accelerated access and accessibility of innovative drugs, and successfully established a management team with excellent performance, diversified inclusiveness and mission driven.

Bas Verhoef, head of Inmena Europe and acting global chief commercial officer, said: "We are very pleased that Zheng Lei has joined Inmena. Her deep accumulation in the medical and health field and global business experience will add to the company's business development in Greater China and the global business team. Greater China is an important strategic market for Minna. I believe that under the leadership of Zheng Lei, this market will continue to make breakthroughs in the future, helping the company realize its long-term vision of improving human health."

In the past two years, the world's leading company in gene sequencing has been challenged, and its revenue has been hovering around $4.5 billion. In 2023, Minna achieved operating income of $4.5 billion, down 1.7 percent year-on-year, with a net loss of $1.16 billion. In the Chinese market, due to the decline in Mina's revenue for several quarters.

China accounts for about 10 per cent of Inmina's revenue and will continue to be an important region for the company, according to a public report in December, Jacob Thaysen, the new head of Inmina. He believes that the most important thing is that the Chinese team is still very optimistic about the future development. There is something unique about China compared to the rest of the world, so you have to think about how to operate in China, you need to think about how to be a local player, and how to look at a local player.

Zheng Lei also said that because Minor will continue to accelerate the landing of innovative products and applications in China, mutual trust and win-win cooperation with colleagues and partners in the industry, and further release the value and accessibility of gene sequencing technology in scientific research and clinical practice. At the same time, we will continue to deepen the localization strategy, based on local production and manufacturing capabilities, and better meet the evolving medical and health needs of the Chinese market.

China's market challenges: fierce competition, the rise of domestic sequencers

For a long time, China's sequencer market has been monopolized by multinational giants. In recent years, affected by multiple factors such as policy, terminal demand changes and domestic sequencer talent precipitation, the domestic sequencer represented by Huada Zhizao has concentrated on the outbreak.

Huada Zhizao mentioned in the 2023 annual performance forecast released in January this year that the sales revenue of gene sequencer products has maintained a relatively high growth. During the reporting period, the sales revenue of gene sequencer sector increased by about 30% year-on-year. According to Eggshell Research Institute statistics, as of December 31, 2023, a total of 25 high-throughput sequencers approved by NMPA, of which 15 are based on the DNBSEQ technology made by Huada Intelligence, the company's market recognition and status gradually improved.

Hu Geng believes that the competition for gene sequencers in China is fierce now, and the second-generation sequencing technology is already very mature. As long as the products can be made, there will be little difference in performance, and enterprises are mainly competing for costs. The new sequencing technology has to face the challenge of market development, and has not yet found a large-scale market application such as second-generation sequencing for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis. However, the high-end equipment of the gene sequencer is still dominated by Illumina and Thermo Fei.

Next, what direction will gene sequencers go? Hu Geng believes that with the gradual localization of more instruments, the illumina Chinese market may shrink further, but the competition between domestic sequencers will become more intense.

Eggshell Research Institute also mentioned in the "Domestic Sequencer Industry Report 2023" that in actual operation, it is not difficult to convert domestic platforms. Some single-cell sequencing service enterprises said that if the platform needs to be replaced, it is only necessary to replace the primer adapter in the process of building the library. There are also domestic sequencing platforms that have achieved complete consistency between the experimental process and the imported platform, realizing seamless switching from imported to domestic platforms. The key factor that determines whether customers switch to domestic platforms is performance. Improving reading length, throughput, speed, reducing costs, and grabbing the industry's attention with breakthrough indicators will be the focus of competition among enterprises in the future.

Source of cover image: Visual China