Founder Jeongsun Seo Motto Humanizing Genomics | Traded as KRX: 038290 Area served global Founded 1997 | |
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Key people Hyonyong Chong (CEO, 2015) Products DNA sequencingBioinformatic analysis Subsidiaries MG MED, Inc., Vector Core A Co., Ltd., Psoma Therapeutics, Inc. | ||
Macrogen corp is a dna sequencing provider to nih nci fda hospitals and universities
Macrogen, Inc. is a South Korean public biotechnology company. The company's headquarters are located in Seoul. The company was founded in 1997 by Jeongsun Seo, a professor at Seoul National University. It was venture capital-backed until its initial public offering (IPO) and subsequent listing on the KOSDAQ market in 2000, making it the first Korean biotechnology firm to raise funds through an IPO. The company announced plans in 2010 to map the "Korean genome" based on the notion that United States-backed genome mapping efforts up to that time were representative of the "Caucasian genome" rather than the "Human genome" as claimed. By 2015, the company was described by one news outlet as "a global leader in personalized genomic medicine".
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Business model
Macrogen's business model focuses on providing research services to other firms engaged in biotechnology research and development. As of 2005, 50% of the firm's revenue was derived from DNA sequencing services. Prior to its 2000 IPO, the company aimed to be the low-cost leader in providing research services; after the IPO, Macrogen turned to DNA sequencing technology development as a way to distinguish itself from competitors. As of 2015, the company had four main divisions based on geography: Korea, USA, Europe and Japan.
Consistent with the post-IPO competitive technology strategy was Macrogen's being among the first customers to purchase a HiSeq X Ten System from Illumina in January 2014, purported to be the first sequencing system to enable cracking the $1,000 genome boundary.
In 2015, the company underwent a corporate identity revision, which included a revised corporate logo and a revised corporate slogan: "Humanizing Genomics."
Corporate governance
As of 2014, HyungTae Kim held the role of chief executive officer (CEO) at Macrogen. By early 2015, however, the CEO role had been filled by Hyonyong Chong.
With respect to the company's Board, founder Jeongsun Seo remained Chairman as of 2015.
According to KOSDAQ statistics, over 90% of the company's outstanding stock is held by individual investors.
Strategic and tactical relationships
In late 2014, Macrogen licensed Clarity LIMS from GenoLogics, a system "built specifically for the needs of clinical or research genomics and mass spec laboratories". Initial integration with service offerings was to be through the USA-based Macrogen Clinical Laboratory.
In 2014 and 2015, Macrogen won competitive bidding rounds to provide genome analysis services to the University College London.
Macrogen Corp
Macrogen Corp. was formed to offer top and distinguished clinical sequencing services to U.S. patients and hospitals, under the tutelage and guidance of Macrogen Inc. in late 2012. Based in Rockville, Maryland, Macrogen Corp. provides CLIA-licensed and top quality services through the research and clinical experiences of genetic and medical experts. Macrogen Corp. offers diagnostic testing for genetic diseases through clinical whole-exome sequencing and targeted sequencing, and provides a "total genomic solution" for the clinical and research area. Future service offering include DNA chip-based neo-genome scanning and cancer diagnostic panels, as well as transcriptome sequencing.