California-based WaferGen Bio-systems Inc has entered into an exclusive distribution agreement in Japan with Takara Bio Inc. The agreement is for promotion and technical support of the ICELL8 Single-Cell System, SmartChip Real-Time PCR, SmartChip Target Enrichment and Apollo 324 products. Recently, WaferGen and Takara announced a merger agreement that is expected to close in March of 2017.

"The Asia Pacific genomic analysis market is large and growing and WaferGen has been experiencing rapid uptake of our clinical research product line in the region," said Rollie Carlson, President and CEO of WaferGen. "We are excited to have a strong partnership with Takara which who has a leadership position in genomic research and single cell analysis, and believe that our combined solutions have the potential to rapidly accelerate adoption our clinical research products and now the ICELL8 Single-Cell System in Japan."

The agreement includes the full Wafergen single-cell analysis and clinical research product lines. The ICELL8 Single-Cell System is a system designed for single-cell analysis. Wafergen in its press release says that the product offers the unique ability to isolate thousands of single cells, automatically identify cells of interest, and prepare single-cells for NGS analysis. The system enables groundbreaking research in the areas of cancer, neuroscience, stem cell research and immunology.

The SmartChip Real-Time PCR and SmartChip Target Enrichment systems are high throughput platforms used for clinical research applications, such as fast and efficient identification of variants associated with complex disease.