"The Open Innovation Program has become a trend in the molecular diagnostics industry"

Established in 2000, South Korea based Seegene Inc is a leader in molecular diagnostics and achieved remarkable financial success with over $1 billion in revenue and 65 per cent gross margins.

- Ayesha Siddiqui

With a mission for a disease-free world and proactive pandemic prevention, Seegene seamlessly integrates high multiplex diagnostic assays with automated testing systems. In an interaction with BioSpectrum, Dr Seong-Youl Kim, Seegene's Senior Vice President, shares insights on the company, the molecular diagnostics landscape, challenges and opportunities etc. 

Molecular diagnostics (MDx) is a powerful tool in healthcare. Could you explain why it's considered the most effective method for accurately diagnosing ailments and the importance of early diagnosis?

With its high accuracy, sensitivity, and rapid testing capabilities, MDx enables early detection and thus leads to appropriate treatment. Particularly, among MDx technologies, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a powerful tool for detecting minuscule amounts of biological material in a sample. This allows the early detection of pathogens in asymptomatic patients, COVID-19 being one of many examples. Early diagnosis can also reshape how we deal with diseases. For example, if we can detect cancer at very early stages, far before symptoms start to show, treatments can make a real difference.

Seegene, a leading South Korean company providing a total solution for PCR molecular diagnostics, has pursued to further refine this technology. Unlike conventional technologies that can detect a few pathogens at a time, our syndromic quantitative PCR (qPCR) reagents are highly multiplexed which can detect up to 15 multiple pathogens in a single tube using Seegene's proprietary technologies. For example, our Human papillomavirus (HPV) products can test for 14 high-risk HPV types and also provide quantitative information of types in a single tube. We have four key technologies such as DPO, TOCE, MUDT and 3Ct.