Benzinga | Dec 22, 2021 04:07PM EST

HTG Completes HTP Product Next-Phase Development Milestone

TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HTG Molecular Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTGM) (HTG), a life science company advancing precision medicine through its innovative transcriptome-wide profiling technology, has now expanded the potential markets and applications for its pioneering HTG Transcriptome Panel (HTP). Since launching HTP with commercial availability in the US and Europe in August 2021, HTG has completed validation of additional sample types that are more commonly used outside of oncology, and also expanded sequencing capabilities to facilitate easier testing of larger sample cohorts.



Initially validated for neoplastic tissue, HTG has now validated HTP for use with normal FFPE tissue and other non-neoplastic tissues. In addition, the panel has been validated with PAXgene, a popular liquid blood-based sample type, and with extracted RNA from both fresh frozen and FFPE tissue samples.

In addition, to maximize sequencer flexibility, HTP is now validated across Illumina's complete portfolio of production-scale sequencers including the NextSeq 500/550, NextSeq 1000/2000 and NovaSeq 6000 platforms. This will allow HTG's customers to more efficiently sequence larger sample cohorts, which HTG believes will significantly increase the efficiency of data generation, in addition to reducing time to results and the overall cost of customer studies.

"We have been extremely pleased with the initial interest in the HTG Transcriptome Panel among leaders in biopharma and academic research, evidenced by our recent achievement at the end of November of the first $1.0 million of revenue recognized post commercial launch," said Byron Lawson, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. "Our initial validation and launch of HTP was primarily focused on neoplastic FFPE tissue samples in oncology. We expect the validation of additional sample types to enable additional commercial opportunities in fields such as immunology, autoimmune diseases and disorders, and infectious disease. Expanding sequencer validation to address Illumina's complete portfolio of production-scale sequencers is critical to supporting studies of all sizes and maximizing study flexibility for our customers. We believe the universal gene content of HTP, coupled with the expansion of sample types and sequencer flexibility, will further drive the demand for this revolutionary product and enable us to further execute our commercial market expansion plans."

Measuring approximately 20,000 mRNA targets using HTG's proprietary HTG EdgeSeqTM technology, HTP can be deployed to profile a wide range of diseases, assist in identifying new drug candidates, develop molecular classification tools and discover critical biomarkers. HTG's panel reduces sample amount requirements, is less sensitive to RNA degradation due to sample age, and provides faster turnaround times than other, currently available methods. HTP has also been shown to have a higher sample success rate than RNA-Seq for gene expression profiling. HTG previously released a series of White Papers highlighting these capabilities and performance measures which can be found here. HTG expects to continue to provide additional internal and expected third party validation data for HTP in future periods.