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Pacific Biosciences of California
Pacific Biosciences was founded in 2004 by Stephen Turner, whose early work on zero-mode waveguide technology at Cornell provided the physical basis for...
Pacific Biosciences of California
Pacific Biosciences was founded in 2004 by Stephen Turner, whose early work on zero-mode waveguide technology at Cornell provided the physical basis for single-molecule, real-time sequencing. The company went public in 2010 and has since been the primary commercial rival to Oxford Nanopore in the long-read sequencing segment, competing for adoption in human whole-genome analysis, metagenomics, and structural variant detection. Its customers include academic genome centers, clinical sequencing labs, and the Broad Institute. PacBio's strategy centers on instrument placement and consumables pull-through. The Revio system, launched in 2022, increased throughput roughly 15-fold over the prior Sequel IIe platform while maintaining high consensus accuracy. That upgrade cycle drove 2023 revenue to approximately $200 million, a figure the company reports publicly each quarter. Deployment is concentrated in North America and Europe, with growing instrument placements in China and Japan through distributor partnerships. The firm also sells sample-prep kits, SMRT Cells, and informatics tools that lock researchers into the PacBio workflow. The executive team operates from the Menlo Park headquarters, with Christian Henry having assumed the CEO role in 2020 and previously holding leadership positions at Illumina and Affymetrix. In October 2023, PacBio completed a restructuring that reduced its workforce by approximately 16% to align costs with instrument placement pacing. The company also announced an OEM agreement with a partner to supply long-read sequencing components for a clinical sequencer platform, expanding its total addressable market beyond its own branded instruments. PacBio's structural differentiator is its two-pronged revenue model: instrument capital sales plus a high-margin consumables stream that recurs over the multiyear life of each sequencer. Most sequencing firms separate instrument manufacturing from consumables development; PacBio controls both, which ties its economics directly to customer utilization rates rather than one-time hardware margins. That linkage makes installed-base utilization the single most important operating metric for the company's quarterly performance.
General information
Firm type
Biotechnology
Year founded
2004
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
United States
City
Menlo Park
Corporate office
Menlo Park, CA, United States
Principals
Christian Henry
Chief Executive Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
How does PacBio's technology differ from Illumina's short-read sequencing?
PacBio sequences single DNA molecules in real time using zero-mode waveguide chips, producing continuous reads tens of kilobases long. Illumina instruments generate short reads of a few hundred bases by sequencing clusters of amplified fragments. Long reads resolve repetitive genomic regions, structural variants, and phased haplotypes that short-read data often miss, making PacBio the platform of choice for de novo genome assemblies and complex variant detection.
What is the commercial significance of the Revio system launch?
The Revio instrument, launched in 2022, packed the computational and optical upgrades necessary to increase throughput approximately 15-fold over the prior Sequel IIe while maintaining the same HiFi accuracy standard. That improvement let PacBio compete for population-scale sequencing projects that previously defaulted to short-read platforms on cost grounds, broadening the addressable market beyond niche assembly work.
Is PacBio a family office or an operating company?
PacBio is a publicly traded life-sciences tools company listed on Nasdaq under the ticker PACB. It is not a family office, fund, or investment vehicle. The firm designs, manufactures, and sells sequencing instruments and consumables to research and clinical laboratories.
What is PacBio's relationship with Illumina?
Illumina attempted to acquire PacBio for $1.2 billion in 2018, but the deal was abandoned in 2020 after antitrust challenges from the UK Competition and Markets Authority and the US Federal Trade Commission. The two companies remain direct competitors in the sequencing market, and Christian Henry, PacBio's CEO since 2020, previously held senior commercial and product roles at Illumina.
Where are PacBio's primary geographic markets?
North America and Europe account for the majority of instrument placements and consumables revenue. The company also maintains a growing footprint in China and Japan through distributor partnerships, with additional commercial presence in South Korea and Singapore supporting adoption in the broader Asia-Pacific region.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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