Illumina positive about the year ahead despite flat financial outlook

The company, which has major facilities in Cambridge, posted revenue of $1.06 billion – down two per cent on Q1 2023.

Illumina reiterates its guidance that revenues will be relatively flat this year compared to 2023.

The company says it remains on track to divest its cancer-focused GRAIL subsidiary by the end of Q2 2024. The European Commission has backed its divestment plan which includes providing GRAIL with around $1bn in funding.

CEO Jacob Thaysen says: “The Illumina team delivered results ahead of our expectations by supporting our customers with innovative solutions that enable the next wave of progress in genomics and multiomics.

“Our customers are leveraging the NovaSeq X to drive increased sequencing activity, even in a persistently challenging global macroeconomic environment.

“Additionally, our team's strong execution and continued focus on operational excellence enabled us to deliver year-over-year improvement in both gross margin and non-GAAP operating margin.”

Significantly, since its last earnings announcement, Illumina has unveiled a collaboration with Cambridge-headquartered AstraZeneca in which participants from Japan will have samples tested using GRAIL’s novel risk classification test on its Methylation platform.

Illumina serves customers in the research, clinical, and applied markets. Its products are used for applications in the life sciences, oncology, reproductive health, agriculture and other emerging segments.