{ "docId": "019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785", "docSlug": "5fadb686cc03", "documentTitle": "Twist Bioscience (TWST)", "authorId": "58_Scorpion_Capital", "authorName": "Scorpion Capital", "documentKindSlug": "activist-deck", "documentKindLabel": "Activist deck", "sourceTypeSlug": "short_seller", "sourceTypeLabel": "Short seller", "presentationDate": "2022-11-15 00:00:00", "orientation": "landscape", "aspectRatio": 1.2941177, "pageNumber": 196, "pageCount": 236, "prevPage": 195, "nextPage": 197, "slideType": "villain_critique", "function": "name_villain", "density": "dense", "nDataPoints": 0, "notes": "The slide uses expert testimony to frame Twist as technologically inferior and structurally locked out of the broader NGS market.", "elementsJson": [ "headline_text", "paragraph", "quote_block", "footnote" ], "metadataConfidence": 1, "imagePath": null, "slideHref": "/slides/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785/196", "deckHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785", "deckJsonHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785.json", "deckAnchorHref": "/decks/019dd923-622c-750b-8b9a-4b91788fc785#slide-196", "components": [ { "bbox": null, "kind": "callout", "text": "Twist is locked out of most of the NGS total addressable market because its technology can't make enough mass for primers – \"this is well known\" – thereby dooming them to a little niche with only a \"fixed amount of space\": \"they don't have the core competency\"; space is \"owned by their competition like Roche.\"", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": "Visual emphasis", "toolSlug": "visual-emphasis", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd953-0933-75bb-9bf4-58862b9e32c7", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.2, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.48 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "Twist’s technology is too limited to enable them to play in “a significant portion” of the NGS market. “The other part of the market that they can’t address is making primers, which is something that IDT does and tother companies. Their technology doesn’t really produce enough mass—and this is well-known—to make primers, which make up a significant portion of the targeted sequencing market. From my perspective, you go and address the hybrid capture market. There’s a fixed amount of space there. Then there’s the rest of the NGS market, which you need tools to address. Their core competency from their original business was to make lower-costing synthetic biology products.” –Former employee now at a key competitor", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "5fb05ffb-fdb0-4f12-aa60-6fe50fd360ee", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.2, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.25 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "No ability to enter the broader NGS market; \"don't have the core competency\"; space is \"owned by\" Roche. Originally, they were a synthetic biology company, and the NGS market for targeted sequencing is a very specific one that is only what they are addressing. Their ability to enter the broader NGS market is limited because of the fact that they make probes for hybridization capture—targeted sequencing. The rest of the market is either of the two: one being old genome sequencing, that's just library prep. It doesn't involve an enrichment step. They can sell into that, but they don't have the core competency to go after run rate business that is owned by their competition like Roche.” – Former employee now at a key competitor", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "7606b678-f9c4-4c4c-b3d6-87e558f5c3d5", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.25, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.7 }, "kind": "paragraph", "text": "Inability to make primers – a key weakness of their technology –locks them out of most of the NGS market. “Taking a step back, there are really two different reasons someone would use NGS. One is to profile an inherited change in a genome or a portion of it. To sequence a portion of it, you need to use hybridization capture or—and I’ll cite an example—or use primers. Twist just can’t make primers because their technology is limited in making the mass, the actual mass of primer that’s required to run PCR. So, you can search for inherited disease. You do that two ways. One, you can run an exome, which is what Twist offers, which is what IDT offers, and which is what Roche, Agilent, and others offer. Or you can sequence the whole genome, the entire thing. So, you don’t need to use target enrichment to sequence that. You just need a library prep kit. Twist has a library prep kit but doesn’t really market it very well to address whole genome sequencing because they don’t have other components that are needed to run a PCR-free workflow, which is what I think the whole genome sequencing community is migrating to.” –Former employee now at a key competitor", "attrs": null, "subkind": "paragraph", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "ed7829e2-1acc-4227-be02-c3b9d627b880", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": null, "kind": "quote", "text": "\"Their ability to enter the broader NGS market is limited because of the fact that they make probes for hybridization capture —targeted sequencing. The rest of the market is either of the two: one being old genome sequencing, that’s just library prep. It doesn’t involve an enrichment step. They can sell into that, but they don’t have the core competency to go after run rate business that is owned by their competition like Roche.\" — Former employee now at a key competitor; \"The other part of the market that they can’t address is making primers, which is something that IDT does and tother companies. Their technology doesn’t really produce enough mass—and this is well-known—to make primers, which make up a significant portion of the targeted sequencing market.\" — Former employee now at a key competitor; \"Twist just can’t make primers because their technology is limited in making the mass, the actual mass of primer that’s required to run PCR.\" — Former employee now at a key competitor", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": "Authority citation", "toolSlug": "authority-citation", "confidence": null, "componentId": "019dd953-0933-75bb-9bf4-5e820f3daf59", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.03, "w": 0.3, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.95 }, "kind": "source-note", "text": "Source: Scorpion Capital consultation calls with experts", "attrs": null, "subkind": null, "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "a43cc922-2c53-4106-a8d3-adefecd8dfdc", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null }, { "bbox": { "h": 0.15, "w": 0.9, "x": 0.05, "y": 0.08 }, "kind": "title", "text": "Twist is locked out of most of the NGS total addressable market because its technology can't make enough mass for primers – \"this is well known\" – thereby dooming them to a little niche with only a \"fixed amount of space\": \"they don't have the core competency\"; space is \"owned by their competition like Roche.\"", "attrs": null, "subkind": "headline", "toolName": null, "toolSlug": null, "confidence": null, "componentId": "f8b2c9e1-4c8d-4e49-975a-bcb374261dee", "frameworkName": null, "frameworkSlug": null } ], "metrics": [], "tools": [], "frameworks": [], "arcBeats": [], "loops": [], "imagePathAlt": null, "thumbSrc": null, "thumbSrcAlt": null, "locked": true }