Twist Bioscience's Strategic Play for the Gene Therapy Supply Chain

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA – December 04, 2025 – In a move that signals a deeper push into the biopharmaceutical supply chain, Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ: TWST) today launched a new line of research-grade Plasmid DNA Preps. While on the surface a product line extension, this launch represents a calculated strategic maneuver to capture a critical, and often challenging, segment of the burgeoning nucleic acid therapeutics market. The company aims to become an indispensable partner for drug developers, moving beyond its role as a foundational DNA synthesis provider to offer tools that span the crucial early stages of therapeutic development.

The new offerings are designed specifically for the preclinical work that underpins the development of gene therapies, mRNA vaccines, and other advanced biologics. "Our new plasmid preps combine the quality and consistency needed for preclinical research with the speed and cost efficiency customers have come to expect from Twist," said Emily M. Leproust, CEO and co-founder of Twist Bioscience. By providing a seamless path from early discovery to preclinical validation, Twist is betting it can solve a significant pain point for its customers and, in doing so, solidify its position in one of biotech's most dynamic sectors.

The Gold Rush for Genetic Medicine's Building Blocks

Twist's timing is no accident. The launch coincides with explosive growth in the market for nucleic acid therapeutics. Bolstered by the landmark success of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and a wave of innovation in gene editing, the sector is on a steep upward trajectory. Market projections are consistently bullish, with some analysts forecasting the nucleic acid therapeutics market to swell from around $8.8 billion in 2024 to over $44 billion by 2035, representing a compound annual growth rate nearing 15%.

At the heart of this expansion is plasmid DNA. These small, circular DNA molecules are the essential starting material and vectors for producing both viral vectors used in gene therapy and the mRNA for vaccines and therapeutics. Consequently, the plasmid DNA manufacturing market itself is booming, projected to grow from approximately $2.1 billion in 2024 to over $6.7 billion by 2030. This demand is creating significant pressure on the supply chain, where quality, consistency, and speed are paramount.

For the pharmaceutical and biotech firms racing to develop these next-generation medicines, securing a reliable source of high-quality plasmid DNA is not just a logistical detail—it's a critical determinant of a program's success and timeline. Variability in plasmid quality can derail experiments, compromise data integrity, and create costly delays, making the preclinical phase a major potential bottleneck.

Raising the Bar on Preclinical Quality

This is precisely the challenge Twist aims to address. The company's new preps are not generic lab supplies; they are specialized tools designed to meet the rigorous demands of preclinical research. The offerings include animal origin-free (AOF) and transfection-grade options, directly targeting two of the biggest concerns for researchers.

Using AOF materials is a critical risk-mitigation strategy. It eliminates the potential for introducing adventitious agents from animal-derived components, a key consideration for regulatory bodies like the FDA and EMA as a therapeutic candidate moves closer to human trials. Similarly, the emphasis on low-endotoxin levels is vital. Endotoxins, which are components of bacterial cell walls, can trigger inflammatory responses in cell cultures and animal models, confounding study results and raising safety flags. Twist is offering low and endotoxin-free options to ensure the purity required for sensitive applications, aligning with the high standards set by established competitors like Aldevron and GenScript, whose premium products often feature endotoxin levels below 0.005 EU/µg.

By guaranteeing target yields and high consistency from prep to prep, Twist is offering its customers a more predictable and reliable research process. For an industry where reproducibility is the gold standard, this promise of reduced variability can translate directly into faster, more efficient R&D, de-risking the enormous capital investments required for drug development.

A Play for Supply Chain Integration

Beyond the technical specifications, the most significant aspect of this launch is its strategic implication. Twist Bioscience is leveraging its core competency in high-throughput, silicon-based DNA synthesis to vertically integrate further into its customers' workflows. The company is making a clear play to become a one-stop shop for nucleic acid development, from the initial gene sequence design to the production of preclinical-grade plasmids.

Currently, many research teams source their synthetic genes from one vendor and then perform their own plasmid preparations or outsource them to a different contract manufacturing organization (CMO). This fragmented process introduces logistical hurdles, potential quality inconsistencies, and the need for multiple vendor qualifications. As Leproust noted, the goal is to allow customers to "rely on Twist from the early research and discovery stage through preclinical development, streamlining their supply chains and eliminating the need to change suppliers as programs advance."

This strategy positions Twist to compete more directly with established players like Thermo Fisher Scientific, which offers a wide array of purification kits, and specialized CMOs such as Aldevron and GenScript, which provide custom plasmid manufacturing from research to GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) grades. Twist's competitive edge lies in its ability to offer an integrated, rapid, and cost-effective pathway powered by its proprietary synthesis platform. For institutional investors and analysts, this move signals an ambition to capture a larger, more integrated share of each customer's R&D budget, creating stickier relationships and a more defensible market position.

Accelerating the Path from Lab to Clinic

The ultimate impact of this strategic expansion could be a meaningful acceleration of drug development timelines. In an industry where time-to-market is measured in years and costs are measured in billions, any efficiency gained in the preclinical stage is significant. By providing a reliable, high-quality, and rapid source of a critical raw material, Twist is effectively selling speed and certainty.

Reducing the need for failed or repeated experiments due to poor plasmid quality saves not only material costs but also the invaluable time of highly skilled scientists. A streamlined supply chain reduces administrative and logistical burdens, allowing research teams to focus on core scientific challenges. This operational efficiency is a powerful value proposition for the hundreds of biotech startups and established pharmaceutical giants alike that are populating the nucleic acid therapeutics pipeline.

For Twist Bioscience, this is more than just a new revenue stream; it's a deepening of its role as an enabler of the entire bio-revolution. By addressing a fundamental bottleneck in the development of genetic medicines, the company is positioning itself as a critical piece of infrastructure for the future of healthcare. In the high-stakes race to develop life-changing therapies, control over these fundamental building blocks may prove to be the most valuable asset of all.