Roche has achieved roughly one-third of its first-year order target of 100 Axelios 1 sequencing instruments and has partnered with Twist Bioscience on target enrichment assays for the platform.
Axelios is a new nanopore-based sequencing platform launched earlier this year that uses sequencing-by-expansion chemistry. Roche has suggested the instrument can provide large numbers of reads cheaper and faster than existing sequencing technology providers.
The sequencing updates came as part of a larger business update issued Oct. 22 by the Swiss life sciences giant. Total group sales through the first nine months of the year were CHF 46.49 billion ($51.73 billion), up 6 percent year over year at constant exchange rates. In the third quarter alone, group sales rose 7 percent at CER. The diagnostics division, which includes sequencing technology, grew 4 percent year over year at CER in the third quarter.
Within diagnostics, Pathology Lab revenue for the nine months ended Sept. 30 grew 10 percent over the prior-year period at CER, driven in part by companion diagnostics growth of 21 percent, while Core Lab revenue rose 5 percent at CER. Molecular Lab revenue grew 3 percent at CER, supported by transplant testing up 17 percent.
According to Roche, the Twist sample prep partnership covers multiple sample types, including cell-free DNA and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue. Twist joins 10x Genomics, Nvidia, Olink, and Google DeepVariant in partnering with Roche on Axelios sequencing.
Roche also highlighted data later presented at the American Society of Human Genetics annual meeting in Montreal. Work done in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco Center for Advanced Technology, showed that Axelios achieved total correlation of 0.99 with standard single-cell sequencing workflows, while delivering single-cell reads of approximately 300 bp, much longer than reads typically obtained on short-read sequencing platform.
UCSF CAT Director Eric Chow announced Oct. 7 that the lab installed an Axelios 1 instrument. “In one word, I would describe Axelios 1 as ‘exciting,’” he said in a statement.
Additionally, work with GeneDx suggested that Axelios can consolidate front-line (i.e short-read) and reflex (i.e. longer-read) whole-genome sequencing onto a single instrument, with high concordance for single-nucleotide variants, indels, and mitochondrial variants in rare disease applications.
Roche maintained its full-year 2026 outlook, projecting mid- to high-single-digit diagnostics sales growth at constant exchange rates. The company described Axelios sequencing, mass spectrometry, and continuous glucose monitoring as “unique blockbuster opportunities” for the diagnostics division over the long term.
