Pacific Biosciences unveiled a plan to allow selected customers to reuse its most expensive SMRT cell consumables and launched a new Sprq‑Nx chemistry that raises output and adds 5‑hydroxymethylcytosine detection. PacBio said the move can lower consumable costs to under $300 per 20× human genome for high‑throughput users, aiming to close the gap with short‑read providers. Separately, South Korea selected PacBio HiFi sequencing for its national pangenome project to produce more than 1,000 telomere‑to‑telomere assemblies representing the Korean population. PacBio will provide whole‑genome sequencing and full‑length RNA analysis for the initiative. Together, the announcements signal accelerating price pressure and adoption of long‑read platforms for population genomics, potentially reshaping large‑scale sequencing economics and enabling broader use of structural‑variant‑rich long reads in clinical research.