The hottest interview with CEO of berry gene, Zhou

Exclusive interview with Zhou Daixing, CEO of berry gene: the gene testing industry has moved from "instrument competition" to "Scene competition"

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through the import of gene sequencing instruments from international biotechnology giant Illumina and other companies, in the past decade, the field of gene testing has developed rapidly and the market scale has been expanding. At the same time, the industry also shows that it is not universal, showing the upgrading and iteration of sequencers, localization Development trends such as the decline of sequencing costs. At present, at the level of commercialization of genetic testing, non-invasive prenatal testing still occupies an absolute share, and has become the main business of leading domestic genetic testing enterprises

on August 14, Zhou Daixing, CEO of berry gene (000710, SZ), received an exclusive interview with the daily economy during the 2019 Western Conference. Zhou Daixing said that at present, the field of genetic testing is changing from the previous instruments to new application scenarios to find market growth. The background of this trend is that the existing business scenario capacity in the market does not match the development level of sequencers and sequencing technology. In the application scenario market, we can see that the total capacity has far exceeded the market capacity of the current sequencer market

instruments are no longer the magic weapon to win

Zhou Daixing said that Illumina, the world's largest manufacturer of gene sequencing equipment, mentioned in the global industry conference in the past two years that the sequencer and sequencing technology have developed to a stage where the cost is no longer a problem, and Illumina has been able to provide a human genome-wide test at a cost of $100. But they have not pushed this product now, because there is no application scenario that requires such a large number of 180 degree twists and turns to experiment with the human genome

if we compare the current gene testing industry with the IT industry, we are in the early 1990s. At that time, computer chips have developed to a certain extent, and downstream applications are needed to push the industry to the second level. At this time, Microsoft and other companies came into being. Without these software developers, even if you buy an apple computer, you will only type. The star analogy of the Zhou Dynasty

in the development process of the past decade, domestic gene technology enterprises mainly exchange the market and customers by purchasing or subsequent independent research and development of gene sequencers. For example, BGI once purchased 128 sequencers from Illumina in 2010, and its business volume expanded rapidly, becoming the largest gene testing company in China. At present, the main business of berry gene is gene detection based on high-throughput sequencing technology and the sales of related reagents and equipment

Zhou Daixing said that from 2002 to 2015, sequencing instruments and instrument related reagents were the largest segment of the market. In this period, whoever has equipment will be king. But now, when the technology itself has developed to a certain extent, it will form such a situation. Scientific research is developing well, but there are not so many application scenarios in the market that can digest these technologies. Building a carrier like Microsoft is the problem that needs to be solved in the second stage

at present, NIPT (non-invasive prenatal gene detection technology) is the largest scenario for gene sequencing technology to be used in commerce. Now the industry sees NIPT more clearly. It can be predicted that after NIPT, the application of detection methods such as Wes (full exome gene detection) in the middle and late stages of tumors and even early diagnosis of tumors will gradually rise. When application scenarios appear, whatever detection form will do is to obtain the information of life information of people's current state, and form a database. When this data volume accumulates to a certain level, the price of front-end genetic testing services will continue to decline, and the data will become more meaningful. In the future, data companies like Google will appear in this industry. It is expected that the total market capacity in the second stage of the industry will certainly exceed the capacity of the current instrument market. Zhou Daixing told

how to cross the threshold of tumor treatment

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the daily economy learned that in addition to NIPT's main business, berry gene selection has set early tumor screening and early diagnosis as its main research direction, focusing on liver cancer, gynecological cancer and lung cancer. At present, it has obtained the world's leading pilot experimental results. Now it is not only genetic testing enterprises that focus on the field of cancer, but also many companies that have little relationship with our industry will enter this field. Because this is a very sunrise and early industry after all. Zhou Daixing said that fan Wenyao, director of the Organizing Committee of the 2010 Autumn national higher education equipment exhibition and Secretary General of the Chinese society of higher education, delivered the opening speech

Zhou Jun, the member enterprise of Beirui gene and CEO of Fujian Herui Gene Technology Co., Ltd., told that at present, the window for early screening, early diagnosis and follow-up treatment of tumors through genetic testing in the industry has been opened, and the industry heat is also rising. Our financing amount is 800million (RMB), and the financing volume of Companies in this field in the United States is often hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. Overnight, many companies emerged in China, claiming to do early screening and early diagnosis of tumors. Everyone realized that this market may be larger than the late stage drug market in the field of cancer, and they all wanted to cross this threshold

in Zhou Daixing's view, it is very important to achieve large-scale in order to cross the threshold of tumor treatment. Although companies continue to come in, it is becoming more and more difficult from the perspective of industrial chain and operation, because it is not easy to form a large-scale. Now the leading companies in the domestic gene sequencing industry have emerged and are relatively stable, so it is more and more difficult for small enterprises to enter, coupled with the pressure of hundreds of millions and billions of R & D investment

there are many new directions in this industry, which provide you with good opportunities to enter through different ways. For example, microbial detection will be a revolutionary direction in the future. The current microbial detection is still solved by the PCR method of the last century and the previous generation of sequencer. For many unknown microorganisms, it is impossible to detect them. And autoimmune disease, which is also a new direction in the gene industry, is still in the research and development stage. I think these new methods and scenarios will gradually be recognized by society and investors. Zhou Daixing said

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