International law firm Simmons & Simmons has advised RevoluGen Ltd (RevoluGen) on its global manufacturing deal with GE Healthcare Life Sciences, facilitating the establishment of a supply chain for its market leading Fire Monkey/ Fire Flower High Molecular Weight DNA (HMW-DNA) extraction and purification product.
RevoluGen is a UK-based molecular chemistry research and development company, whose latest HMW-DNA innovation in sample preparation improves the quality of data available to scientists from long-read DNA sequencing. All DNA sequencing requires the DNA to be extracted from the cell as a first step in sample preparation. The subsequent DNA sequencing that is then performed involves the process of reading part, or all of the DNA code found in all living cells. Being able to read this code can help to improve disease diagnosis and clinical care across many different areas of medicine, from rare diseases and cancers, to the management of infectious diseases. The emerging long-read DNA sequencing techniques can enable a much better understanding of the complete genomic readout from the cell than the more established short-read DNA sequencing technologies can provide.
Under the terms of this new manufacturing deal, GE Healthcare Life Sciences will manufacture RevoluGen’s Fire Monkey/ Fire Flower kit, which has been designed to extract fragments of DNA with an average length of 100 kb long whilst simultaneously removing the smaller unwanted fragments below 10 kb. This highly purified High Molecular Weight DNA improves long-read sequencing results significantly.
The Simmons & Simmons team comprised James Agnew, Lydia Torne, Michael Gavey (partner) and Charles Mayo (senior adviser). Charles Mayo commented:
“RevoluGen’s new technology has important applications in accelerating how scientists can understand diseases and develop treatments. We are delighted to have supported RevoluGen on this global manufacturing deal with GE Healthcare Life Sciences.”
This deal follows the firm’s previous work for RevoluGen, including in July 2019 when the Simmons & Simmons team, headed by Charles Mayo, advised on a global distribution agreement for this product, with pharmaceutical company Merck KGaA.