Salus Biomed Files IPO Prospectus: Pioneering Full-Scale Domestic Innovation in Gene Sequencing Instruments

Gene sequencing is one of the most prominent innovative technologies in current scientific and clinical applications.

By determining the base sequence of DNA through sequencing instruments, the genetic code of DNA can be deciphered, providing guidance for life science research, clinical diagnosis, and treatment. As a result, gene sequencing technology has been rapidly adopted and iterated, forming a vast industrial chain with gene sequencers and their consumables at the upstream, sequencing and data services at the midstream, and research and clinical applications at the downstream.

In recent years, the global gene sequencing market has maintained a trend of rapid growth. According to reports from Markets and Markets and the "Global and China Life Sciences Integrated Solutions Industry Report" by Frost & Sullivan (China), the global market size for gene sequencers and consumables is projected to reach $24.58 billion by 2030, while the market size in China is expected to reach RMB 30.39 billion.

However, for a long time, China’s gene sequencer market has been monopolized by multinational giants such as Illumina, Thermo Fisher, and Roche. This has severely limited the bargaining power of midstream genetic testing companies, leaving the entire industry chain dependent on foreign entities. As the pinnacle of technology in the life sciences sector, and given the unique nature of genomic data, it is crucial to break the blockade imposed by overseas enterprises and achieve domestic substitution of imported sequencers to ensure information security.

We observed that,Salus Medical (Shenzhen)Committed to promoting domestic substitution in this “chokepoint” sector. Since its establishment, the company has achieved rapid progress, building a closed-loop industrial chain within just two years and realizingThe comprehensive localization of sequencer-related hardware, software, reagents, and consumables can provide complete solutions for mid- and downstream applications.

Meanwhile, Salus is also driving the continuous expansion of sequencing tool applications. With sequencers as its cornerstone, the company is building a globally leading super-resolution spatial omics platform, continuously promoting the iteration and innovation of domestically produced equipment technologies, and striving to break the monopoly held by overseas enterprises in the high-end upstream market for clinical and research applications.

As MGI Tech’s second-generation gene sequencers hit the market, breaking the monopoly, several domestic companies have successively launched Chinese-made gene sequencing systems, ushering in a wave of import substitution for gene sequencers in China.

Zhao Luyang, who has been engaged in research in the field of biotechnology for many years, has witnessed the evolution of the sequencer market from a state of high monopoly by overseas giants to the emergence of domestic brands. At the same time, he is deeply aware that more people need to get involved.

"In fact, the industry has yet to resolve critical pain points such as persistently high costs and continued reliance on imported core raw materials."“Moreover, with the deep restructuring of the global industrial landscape in recent years, compounded by the impact of international trade dynamics, the strategic importance of raw materials and supply chain systems has become even more pronounced,” said Zhao Luyang, Founder and CEO of Salus. Therefore, establishing a closed-loop industry chain, stabilizing the raw material supply system, and achieving full domestic production of sequencing tools are undoubtedly imperative steps.

In October 2020, Salus was established, and within just two years, it passedBy independently developing dNTPs, screening high-efficiency sequencing enzymes and other raw materials, constructing novel biochemical reaction systems, designing proprietary hardware, and supporting/optimizing domestic supply chains, we have established a closed-loop ecosystem for the gene sequencing industry., based on this, pipelines such as a sequencing platform and an ultra-high-resolution spatial omics platform were constructed, significantly improving reaction efficiency and substantially reducing application costs.

Not only that, but the company also completed the finalization and small-batch production of its first sequencer product within just one year of its establishment,Achieved the commercial launch of its first gene sequencer within two years.In November 2022, Salus Pro made its global debut at the 8th NGS Omics Innovation Developers Conference, marking the start of its commercialization journey and completing its transformation from product development to commercial sales.

Such high execution efficiency and rapid R&D progress stem from Salus's multidisciplinary, cross-functional team.

As is well known, the gene sequencing industry is a high-end, multidisciplinary sector. Sequencers and their配套 reagents involve multiple fields, including electromechanical engineering, optics, software, and nucleic acid chemistry, which place high demands on the professional competence of teams. Meanwhile, there is a long-term need for high-level interdisciplinary talent to ensure sustainable development and technological innovation for companies.

Salus’s core members have formed a multidisciplinary team with extensive experience in relevant niche sectors, combining forward-looking original innovation capabilities with robust engineering implementation expertise.

Among them, Zhao Luyang, the company’s founder and CEO, holds a Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from North Carolina State University. He has over ten years of R&D experience in super-resolution fluorescence imaging and chip-based chemistry, as well as extensive experience in team management, business development, and industry research.

Wang Gufeng, Co-founder and Chief Scientist of Salus, formerly served as a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at North Carolina State University before returning to China to work full-time at Salus. Dr. Wang is dedicated to the development and innovation of super-resolution optical imaging technologies, applying them to structural observation of subcellular organelles and dynamic tracking of biomolecular transport. He has published numerous academic papers in prestigious journals, including Nature and Nature Cell Biology.

Meanwhile, the professional backgrounds of the company’s core team members span key disciplines such as nucleic acid chemistry, optics, fluidics, imaging, and bioinformatics, complemented by years of marketing experience in China’s biopharmaceutical sector. This well-rounded team has been instrumental in building the company’s industrial closed-loop ecosystem and accelerating commercialization.

Currently, the industrialization of the upstream sequencing sector in China has a relatively short history, the industry remains immature, and it continues to face numerous challenges.

First, due to technological limitations,Sequencers entail high capital and operational costs, and lack flexibility., making it difficult to penetrate the mass market. Secondly, due to the pronounced monopoly effects in the upstream sector of the sequencing industry, the negotiation power and bargaining leverage of midstream genetic testing service providers are severely constrained. Finally, there is a lack of top-tier research tools,Current spatial products suffer from significant deficiencies in accuracy and spatial resolution.

Addressing the aforementioned pain points, Salus is committed to optimizing and iterating its sequencing tools. The company has deployed a diverse product portfolio across two key sectors—gene sequencers and spatial omics—to meet a wide range of customer requirements.

In the sequencer segment,Salus is developing mid-to-high-throughput sequencers for hospital settings. Among them,Salus Pro, the company’s first independently developed high-throughput sequencer, integrates multiple innovative technologies such as wide-field imaging, high-efficiency sequencing enzymes, and rapid chemistry, achieving a raw Q30 score as high as 0.9.

Zhao Luyang stated, “We position Salus Pro to ‘race’ against time and open up a ‘land’ of sequencing freedom. ‘Time’ not only represents the company’s rapid development along the temporal dimension, with a united and efficient team seizing the critical window for the explosion of sequencing applications, but also signifies the product’s high sequencing speed. For instance, in various application scenarios such as mNGS, we can achieve top-tier industry performance.”

Currently, Salus Pro has achieved commercialization and demonstrated differentiated advantages in clinical and research applications. Through testing and feedback across multiple application scenarios and sample types, Salus Pro has proven better equipped to meet users’ multidimensional needs. It is a product that truly enables hassle-free operation of clinical sequencing, thereby promoting the adoption of downstream applications and ultimately realizing clinical value.

“Currently, dozens of clients in China have used Salus Pro, including enterprises, hospitals, and research institutions covering multiple application areas. The conclusion is that the product’s performance parameters and data quality are comparable to those of similar products from leading international companies, with significant advantages in certain niche fields. For instance, it achieves SE100 sequencing within 6.5 hours, supports the PE250 sequencing mode, and offers flexible options ranging from a minimum of 80 million reads to a maximum data output of 600 Gb per run,” said Wang Gufeng.

Positioned as a precise, rapid, and flexible product, Salus Pro is better equipped to address the dual needs of scientific research and clinical admission.According to the company, Salus Pro has entered the clinical registration phase and is progressing steadily.

According to revenue data from leading international companies, ultra-high/high-throughput instruments, such as the NovaSeq series, account for the vast majority (over 60%) of consumables revenue in the industry, compared to low-to-mid-throughput devices. Therefore, strategic positioning in the ultra-high/high-throughput sequencing instrument segment is decisive for a company’s future business expansion and growth potential. The ability to provide solutions that meet industrial-scale sequencing demands has become the key factor determining whether upstream enterprises can secure a large downstream customer base.

Salus Evois a sequencer positioned for high to ultra-high throughput,It is an upgrade based on Salus Pro’s core modules, including imaging, fluidics, and chip chemistry, innovatively employing faster processes and systems.Achieved further improvements in sequencing speed, while maintaining a cost advantage per unit of data within this throughput range.

Notably, Salus Medical’s advantages in raw materials and supply chain can help reduce costs, potentially breaking the “impossible triangle” of throughput, sequencing speed, and cost to some extent. This enables better cost control while achieving faster sequencing speeds and higher throughput.

In the spatial omics sector, Salus has launched globally leading spatial omics chip products, leveraging its proprietary high-throughput sequencing platform and super-resolution imaging technology that breaks the optical diffraction limit.

In February 2023, Salus Medical conducted an online technical presentation showcasing its existing technological roadmap, product formats, and research data in spatial omics, garnering significant attention from the industry. Currently, its omics chips with a resolution of 1–2 micrometers exceed mainstream imported products by more than 100-fold, enabling the acquisition of intra-tissueTranscriptomic Information at the Subcellular Level, propelling it into the top tier of cutting-edge scientific research equipment and further breaking the monopoly held by overseas enterprises in this sector.

The company has also developed SAILOR (Salus Automated Intelligent Lab for Omics Research), an automated and intelligent multi-omics platform that integrates Salus’s high-throughput sequencers and spatial omics instruments, seamlessly connecting with upstream sample preparation processes and other omics tools to provide comprehensive, multi-dimensional omics data.

By leveraging automated and intelligent control technologies, this platform enables 24/7 unmanned operation, providing comprehensive solutions for clinical practice and scientific research. It will facilitate target discovery and mechanistic studies, thereby significantly advancing the fields of reproductive health, oncology, population genomics, and modern agriculture.

Overall, Salus's product strategy is to make sequencing more flexible.On one hand, it increases sequencing speed and reduces the cost of high-throughput sequencing. On the other hand, it enhances the resolution of spatial omics by integrating high-throughput sequencers with spatial omics platforms, thereby providing researchers with tools of greater flexibility and depth, and laying the foundation for the future application of spatial omics in precision medicine.

“Biological technologies have currently reached a confluence of breadth and depth,” said Wang Gufeng. He noted that a key direction for sequencers is expanding breadth, such as through high-throughput sequencing and large-cohort population genomics. Spatial omics, on the other hand, builds upon this breadth to delve deeper, pursuing high spatial resolution.And this is precisely the key to the escalating competition in domestic substitution in the future.

Currently, the “impossible trinity” of sequencers remains to be broken, and commercially successful spatial omics products based on NGS technology on the market still have a resolution far larger than that of a single cell, failing to meet biologists’ requirements.

Building on this, Salus leverages its proprietary sequencing platform combined with optical innovations to capture more detailed spatial molecular distribution and structural information in spatial omics research, thereby enhancing spatial resolution to the subcellular level.

“This represents a simultaneous breakthrough in both depth and breadth,” said Wang Gufeng. Spatial omics research enables the visualization of functional and interaction networks across the genome, transcriptome, epigenome, metabolome, and proteome at the cellular and even subcellular organelle levels, with its core beingSimultaneously achieving both flux and spatial resolution.

Currently, Salus has nearly 100 patents under review or already approved, with comprehensive coverage in the areas of biochemical reagents and optical-mechanical systems. Meanwhile, it has also made forward-looking layouts in spatial transcriptomics and bioinformatics algorithms.

Salus Biomed, also known as Salus, draws its name from the “Goddess of Health” in Roman mythology. At this critical juncture where the life sciences tools sector emphasizes domestic substitution, Salus, as an upstream innovator in sequencing and spatial omics platforms, strives to overcome technological bottlenecks. In the field of sequencing, it focuses on enhancing performance to build a leading Chinese national brand. In spatial omics, it achieves continuous breakthroughs in resolution, supporting the healthy development of China’s biopharmaceutical industry in both research and clinical applications. Meanwhile, Salus emphasizes the integration of domestic and international technologies, monitors the ongoing expansion into global markets, and leverages its technological and supply chain advantages to promote the overseas deployment of its spatial omics and sequencer solutions.

Looking to the future, Salus will continue to pursue regulatory approvals for its sequencers and reagents, advance the research and development of new technologies, upgrade its product portfolio, steadily expand production capacity, and further reduce the cost of gene sequencing. Meanwhile, by establishing robust marketing and after-sales service systems, Salus will actively expand into both domestic and international markets, contributing to human health.