3-Prime launched to focus on serving the R&D market

ASTON, Pa.—Prime Synthesis Inc. a developer of DNA synthesis support products aimed primarily at the clinical and drug manufacturing markets, recently announced the formation of a new operating division called 3-Prime LLC, with the intent of providing the same solid support used by these customers for oligonucleotide production for the research and development market.

According to Marc Rothstein, president of 3-Prime, the intent of creating a separate division focused on the research market was to be able to provide the customized service needed to maximize oligo yields and production at the half dozen or so companies providing these materials to the research markets.

"We have seen that there have been a lot of interesting developments and collaborations occurring in the research market," he says. "As more and more companies look to perform genomic research, there is an increasing need for oligos to support them and we are in a position to provide value to the companies producing the oligos."

In order to ensure that its support products are of the highest standard, 3-Prime has turned to one of these manufacturers, Integrated DNA Technologies (IDT), to test and validate its products.

According to Trey Martin, COO of IDT: "Researchers working with 3-Prime not only [will] receive effective product for their work, but they will also benefit from IDT's analytical expertise and our experience in high-throughput oligo production."

While 3-Prime is providing materials that aid high-volume oligo producers, Rothstein says there is very little fear that any of 3-Prime's potential customers would take that capability in-house.

"While nothing we do is patent-protected, we have learned our own trade secrets over the years and have become very efficient at what we do," Rothstein says. "With oligo prices around 50 cents per base, these companies would rather focus their time and effort on further automating their production and increasing efficiency of their operation than spending a lot of time developing things they can easily get from us."