Illumina, Inc., the global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies and Next Generation Genomic Co., Ltd. (NGG Thailand), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders in laboratory services and reproductive science, have announced the launch of VeriSeq™ NIPT Solution v2 in Thailand, a CE-IVD, next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based approach to noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT).

The automated in-lab IVD solution will allow NGG Thailand to launch the Qualifi Prenatal Test and be the first laboratory in South East Asia to detect anomalies that targeted assays miss and deliver more insights into the health of a pregnancy compared to standard NIPT offerings. 

Using Illumina’s VeriSeq NIPT Solution v2, the test delivers a comprehensive view of the fetal genome compared to other CE-IVD NIPT products, enabling healthcare providers to support expectant parents with informed, timely and personalized pregnancy management options better than ever before.

While conventional prenatal screening has been available for over 30 years, these tests were limited in their ability to screen beyond aneuploidies of chromosomes 21, 18, and 13. NGG Thailand’s Qualifi Prenatal Test uses VeriSeq NIPT Solution v2 to provide accurate information about fetal chromosomal status as early as 10 weeks of gestation using a single maternal blood draw. 

This noninvasive test provides a whole-genome sequencing (WGS) approach to NIPT, expanding prenatal screening beyond the three most common aneuploidies of chromosomes 21, 18 and 13, to all rare autosomal aneuploidies (RAAs), sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCAs), and large partial duplications and deletions.