PacBio Sells Their Short-Read IP to Illumina

By Bio-IT World Staff

February 3, 2026 | Yesterday, PacBio announced the completion of the sale of short-read DNA sequencing technology to Illumina. PacBio received $48.1 million in net cash proceeds from the transaction. The sale closed on January 30, 2026.

In 2021, PacBio leaned into short-read sequencing, purchasing Omniome short-read sequencing technology for $800 million. Yesterday’s sale included intellectual property and other assets related to PacBio’s short-read DNA sequencing technology and related clustering, sequencing reagent, and detection technologies. Under the terms of the agreement, Illumina assumed certain liabilities and granted a non-exclusive license certain intellectual property back to PacBio.

“Last year, in response to challenging macroeconomic conditions, we made the strategic decision to pause development of our high-throughput short-read sequencing platform so that we can take full advantage of our innovations in the long-read sequencing market,” said Christian Henry, President and Chief Executive Officer, in a statement about the sale.

“This transaction further sharpens our focus and meaningfully strengthens our balance sheet. It positions us to drive adoption of our differentiated long-read sequencing platform and execute on the next phase of growth. For example, we have accelerated development of SPRQ-Nx chemistry to launch globally. SPRQ-Nx offers the most complete view of the genome at a competitive pricing structure,” he added.  

PacBio launched the Onso short-read platform in 2023, two years after the Omniome acquisition. And while Henry plugged the platform in January updates in 2024 and 2025, air time for the short-read platform shrunk each year. This year at the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Henry spent time highlighting SPRQ-Nx chemistry’s efficiency, citing whole genomes with full HiFi resolution at $300 per genome.