(As We Predicted Six Months Back), BGI Plans IPO
We wrote in February -
BGI It is the Wild West of Genomics
Business Week provides Beginners guide to the genome sequencing factory in a nice article -
Its the Wild West, says George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard University and an adviser to BGI. This is a field that has arisen overnight, and the number of discoveries is going up exponentially. A single genome contains a massive amount of data (a human genome, for example, contains about 3 billion nucleotides, or data points), and a bioinformatics experts work requires sifting through, comparing, and testing the information in multiple genomes. While sequencing costs have dropped dramatically in the last 10 years, the process is far from automated. Companies that offer personalized genetic testing, such as 23andMe, typically test only for a sampling of 100 traits and diseases, or about 1/3,000th of the entire genome, Church says. For about $4,000, BGI does the whole thing.
What next? Are they going IPO Silicon valley style? We hope not !!
It took six long months for that forecast to come true.
BGI Shenzhen Plans IPO
publication date: Sep 3, 2013
BGI Shenzhen, the worlds largest sequencing company, is planning to split itself in two and IPO its institutional sequencing business. The other half, its retail diagnostic sequencing segment, which serves the hospital/clinic market, will remain private. BGI hasnt officially announced its IPO, so no financial details for the transaction are available, nor has the company named its target exchange.
That was easy to see. A Business Week article costs enormous amount of money and provides little benefit to a business, unless there is a need to be known to public. Only reason we can think of for a highly specialized company to be popular is an IPO.
