The Chinese government took its economic sanctions against San Diego-based Illumina a step further Tuesday by banning the gene-sequencing company from importing its machines to the country.

At a launch event on Feb. 20, Roche detailed plans to enter Illumina's sequencing stronghold with a new platform. Roche's platform is in testing now and scheduled to launch commercially in 2026.

The import ban on Illumina's NGS sequencers follows its placement on China's Ministry of Commerce's (MOFCOM) ‘Unreliable Entity List’ last month. Image credit: JHVEPhoto via Shutterstock.