Illumina Inc., a global leader in DNA sequencing and array-based technologies, has announced the launch of the Global Health Access Initiative to support access to pathogen sequencing tools for public health in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

The programme, developed with guidance from customers, funders, and market facilitators including the nonprofit FIND, will provide reduced pricing structures for eligible sequencing products from Illumina to qualified global health funding entities and address key international logistics and supply chain challenges.

Currently, pricing for sequencing instruments and consumables can vary by country or region, which is challenging for funders and donors and can limit broad implementation.

Illumina's Global Health Access Initiative will provide discounted prices for a range of sequencing applications, including drug resistance profiling in tuberculosis, whole-genome sequencing of emerging and reemerging viruses to monitor virus evolution and support outbreak response, broad respiratory pathogen detection for influenza-like illness surveillance, wastewater and other environmental surveillance applications to track pathogens, and antimicrobial resistances at the population level.