Ireland – Medical equipments, pharmaceuticals and personal care products – Supply of a Vega HiFi Long-Read Sequencing System, Associated Reagents, Consumables and Maintenance for Galway Reference Laboratory Services

HSE Procurement intends to enter into a six-year arrangement with Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (PacBio) for the supply of one Vega HiFi long-read sequencing system, associated sequencing consumables, library preparation reagents, indexing reagents, maintenance and delivery for Galway Reference Laboratory Services (GRLS). The system is required to provide highly accurate native long-read sequencing to support definitive characterisation and tracking of mobile genetic elements, including plasmids carrying antimicrobial resistance genes. GRLS requires greater than 90% of bases to achieve a quality score of Q30 or greater, together with sequencing output capable of integration with its existing bioinformatics workflow. Alternative long-read sequencing technology was considered but does not currently meet the laboratory's defined sequencing accuracy requirement. PacBio HiFi sequencing provides long reads with typical read accuracy of 99.9%. Pacific Biosciences is the sole provider of its proprietary SMRT® sequencing technology and the sole manufacturer of the Vega sequencing system. The associated sequencing consumables, library preparation reagents and indexing reagents required for the proposed workflow are proprietary to PacBio.