The use of genetic genealogy to help bring violent criminals to justice is something local DNA-based human identification (HID) company Verogen is passionate about.
Since 2017, the Sorrento Valley-headquartered company has provided equipment for high-tech sequencing of crime scene DNA and has been supporting the global HID community with next-generation sequencing (NGS) tools and professional services to help resolve violent criminal cases and missing-persons cases.
President & CEO
Verogen
Spun out of Illumina (NASDAQ: ILMN) six years ago, and acquired in January of this year by the Netherlands-based biotech operator QIAGEN (NYSE:QGEN) for $150 million, Verogen is a leader in the use of NGS technologies that drive the future of HID and forensic investigation. NGS platforms emerged two decades ago as an alternative to capillary electrophoresis (or CE, which was developed by forensic biologists to detect genetic variation in the late 1970s) because of its ability to generate significantly more information from a DNA sample.
“QIAGEN has been in the forensic space since 1999 and it was a natural evolution for them,” said Verogen CEO Brett Williams. “They saw that NGS will supersede the CE approach. QIAGEN saw the future of NGS, and it has grown into a huge market in the United States. It is transforming the justice system using technology. We think there are at least 100,000 cold cases in homicide in the U.S., with DNA (availability) and we estimate there are about 650,000 sexual assault (cold) cases.”
30% YOY Growth
QIAGEN leaders in January said the company expects about $20 million of sales from the Verogen portfolio in 2023, building on about $5 million of sales for QIAGEN in 2022 from a 2021 distribution agreement. (QIAGEN and Verogen have been commercialization partners since a 2021 agreement that allowed QIAGEN to distribute Verogen’s Illumina MiSeq FGx sequencer – the first and only NGS instrument developed and validated for forensic genomics — as well as its NGS-based panels and GEDmatch bioinformatics solutions.)
QIAGEN’s second-quarter 2023 earnings report shared with investors Aug. 8 listed net sales of $495 million that also “included incremental sales from Verogen.”
Verogen in 2019 acquired GEDmatch, an online service allowing users to compare autosomal DNA data files from different testing companies, for a reported $15 million.
Although there are many commercial ancestry websites, GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA are the only two that allow law enforcement to openly search their databases. Since 2010, GEDmatch has crowdsourced 1.9 million DNA kits from 1.4 million “genetic witnesses” through results from companies like 23andme and AncestryDNA, and is growing by 3,000 new users a week. Genetic information that is shared with companies like GEDmatch is said to have led to the arrest last year of Bryan Kohberger, linked to the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students.
Verogen’s global forensic investigative genetic genealogy business continues to be at the forefront of DNA-based human identification, which in addition to finding violent criminals and solving crimes, also helps pinpoint previously unidentified human remains and exonerate those wrongfully convicted of transgressions.
Williams credits much of Verogen’s nearly 30% year-over-year growth to Dr. Swathi A. Kumar, who leads the global FIGG business at Verogen.
FIGG’s Expanded Mission
Kumar is responsible for stewarding the company’s industry-leading portfolio of FIGG platforms and products. In 2021, Kumar launched ForenSeq Kintelligence, making FIGG accessible for 200 U.S. crime labs.
FIGG is now being adopted to search for those executed in the Spanish Civil War, by the Greek Army to identify victims of war, by the French National Police to identify serial rapists, by the nonprofit Utah Cold Case Coalition to catalog the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre and more.
“One of our huge missions is to build the technology out at every lab funded by taxpayers,” Kumar said. “We want this to be adopted by law enforcement as part of the offerings to their community to support public safety measures.”
Williams said that Kumar’s work to size the total addressable FIGG market, build globalization strategies and forge key commercial partnerships directly led to the sale of Verogen to QIAGEN, which was a 10x multiple on revenue.
“Her long-term focus on advocacy highlights her commitment to victims who have fallen through the cracks of an overburdened system,” Williams said. “Under her stewardship, this nascent field of FIGG is moving violent-crime solve rates from 40% to 90%, righting the sins of our past and quickly becoming the last best hope for victims and missing persons.”
Verogen Inc.
FOUNDED: 2017
PRESIDENT AND CEO: Brett Williams
HEADQUARTERS: Sorrento Valley, San Diego
BUSINESS: Forensic Genomics and DNA Sequencing
REVENUE: Parent company Qiagen expects about $20M in sales from the Verogen portfolio in 2023.
EMPLOYEES: 50+
WEBSITE: verogen.com
CONTACT: 800-362-7737 or info@verogen.com
NOTABLE: Qiagen (NYSE:QGEN) in January completed the acquisition of Verogen in a $150-million cash deal.
