Pacific Biosciences Expands Into European Union

Terry Pizzie Appointed Vice President, Europe; UK-based Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute Becomes Early Access Customer

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Pacific Biosciences, a private company developing a disruptive technology platform for real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution, today announced it has expanded its operations into the European Union with the appointment of Terry Pizzie as Vice President, Europe and with its first European customer, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.

Mr. Pizzie has more than 20 years experience in a broad range of international commercial life sciences industry management positions. Previous to joining Pacific Biosciences he was Director of Global Commercial Operations (a board position) for Genetix (now part of the Leica Division of Danaher Corp.) Prior to joining Genetix in 2007 he was Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations from 2005-2007 at Biacore (now part of GE Healthcare), a market leader in protein interaction analysis in research, drug discovery development and manufacturing. Before joining Biacore, he was Vice President Europe of Applied Biosystems (now part of Life Technologies Corp.) from 2002-2004 with responsibility for all European commercial operations including strategy, performance and operational efficiency. He joined Applied Biosystems in 1988 as a sales engineer and advanced through the organization in increasingly responsible positions including Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Europe from 2000-2002. Mr. Pizzie holds a degree in Physiology and Biochemistry from the University of Reading.

“Terry has an exceptional track record of strategically managing the commercial success of leading life science organizations in Europe, and we are delighted that he will lead the establishment of our European operations,” said Hugh Martin, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Biosciences.

Pacific Biosciences also announced that the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute has purchased a PacBio RS 3rd generation sequencing system as part of the company’s early access program. Earlier this year, Pacific Biosciences announced the first 10 customers as part of its North American early access program. These sites, which represent genome centers, cancer research institutions, commercial organizations, and universities, have begun receiving their instruments. Today’s announcement reflects the company’s expansion of its early access program to a limited number of sites outside of North America.

For more information, visit www.pacificbiosciences.com.

About Pacific Biosciences

Pacific Biosciences’ mission is to transform the way humankind acquires, processes, and interprets data from living systems. The company has developed a disruptive technology platform for the real-time detection of biological events at single molecule resolution. Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT™) Biology is designed to revolutionize the life sciences by revealing the underlying networks that define living systems. The first application for the SMRT Biology platform is a paradigm changing approach to DNA sequencing. SMRT technology could ultimately make it possible to sequence individual genomes as part of routine medical care. DNA sequencing is expected to be the first of many transformative SMRT Biology applications that will benefit society by driving radical advances in fields such as personalized medicine, agriculture, clean energy, and global health.



CONTACT:

For Pacific Biosciences
Nicole Litchfield, 415-793-6468
[email protected]

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