10X Genomics FQ4 '23, Visium HD and GEM-X
Update on the financials and new products
The company currently dominating the Single Cell and Spatial Biology fields, 10X Genomics TXG 0.00%↑ presented FQ4 2023 results, and here are my highlights on these.
Total revenue for 2023 grew 20% to $619 million. Spatial revenue exceeded $135M, with the launch of the Xenium and many instruments already in customer’s hands: TXG sold more than 250 Xeniums.
Visium HD
Visium HD has been the most requested product in the company’s history. HD increases the resolution by over three orders of magnitude. The arrayed chips are produced by Centrillion, a company that’s kept a relatively low profile but is known in the spheres of specialised knowledge in NGS/arrays. The Visium HD line opens up spatial-omics to researchers so they can extract large scale molecular information from the tissues at single cell-scale resolution. Visium HD is tied to the CytAssist instruments, of which the company has sold more than 500 units so far. The CytAssist is a $75,000 instrument. Visium HD pre-orders opened in January 2024, and got a good initial response and early demand.
One small detail that is important here: Visium HD is not a poly-A whole transcriptome spatialomics method, but rather, a large panel of RNA probes, of 50-60bp in length, with around 3 probes per gene ratio, although the highly expressed genes only get 1 probe per gene. 10X Genomics comes out of the gates with a Human 20K Visium HD panel, and the Mouse equivalent will be of the similar size. But anyone working with other species will have to talk to 10X to collaborate in the design of these probes. There isn’t any magic on the probes themselves, one can get them made by people like Twist Bio TWST 0.00%↑ or IDTDNA which is part of Danaher DHR 0.00%↑ .
This means that at the moment, only Curio Bio SEEKER sells a truly discovery-mode high-resolution (HD) spatial-omics product. TXG will have to rethink how much discovery people want to do on their Visium line versus the Xenium, and gauge the threat that Curio Bio is to their Visium product line.
GEM-X
This is the biggest overhaul of the single-cell technology for the Chromium franchise since 2019. GEM-X is a new cartridge or chip, and there is no change in the beads technology which is core and center to TXG or the Chromium iX/X instrument itself.
Since the only thing that changes is the cartridge, GEM-X technology lets you use our tried-and-tested Chromium Single Cell workflow, but capturing more genes and complexity than before. New chip architecture has been optimized based the experience from the Next GEM assays, aiming at increasing cell throughput at higher capture rates.
More efficient microfluidics means more efficient cell capture—up to 80% vs. 65% with Next GEM assays
Faster run times do not negatively affect cell stress, with data showing improved capture of fragile cells
Twice as many Gel Beads-in-emulsion (GEMs) are generated at smaller volume, reducing multiplet rates two-fold and increasing throughput capabilities
Improvements in chip design reduce clogging and increase success rates
GEM-X advancements set a solid foundation for future application support and continued performance improvements
At the same time as releasing GEM-X, which will become available at end of March 2024, TXG is trying to consolidate the different products around Chromium: the company already discontinued their “Low Throughput” line (LT), which was a way of enticing new scientists into single cell by offering a kit that would work in the 500-1500 cell range. The fact that this product has been discontinued is a testament of the fact that TXG wants to streamline production, concentrate on fewer products but with more robust manufacturing processes, which will hopefully ameliorate the problems that some customers have faced with Chromium X, which turned less reliable than the earlier generation Chromium Controller. In fact, many customers went back to running Chromium Controller assays even after buying the Chromium X and trying it for a few runs. Some of these issues were due to bad batches of the kits, but there is also the possibility that the Chromium X itself wasn’t as reliable overall.
So GEM-X is an opportunity for TXG to press the “reset” button on the Chromium X history of bad reliability, while purging other kits like “LT” and others that will now be superseded by GEM-X. The good news for customers is that GEM-X is cheaper per cell unit price than equivalents in older kits.