OEM oligos are oligonucleotides made to your specification and shipped under your label, in the quantities and formats a product line needs rather than the tube-by-tube sizes a research catalog sells. The buyer is usually a kit manufacturer, a diagnostics developer or a contract lab that consumes the same primers and probes month after month, and the price is set by a supply agreement rather than a web form. This page explains how that agreement is built, which specifications move the price and where the comparison on this site fits.
What separates an OEM order from a catalog order
A catalog oligo is one sequence at one scale, priced per base with a purification option and shipped dry in a tube. An OEM order is the same chemistry with different economics: a fixed sequence set, a forecast volume, a delivery format (plates, bulk solution, lyophilized in your vial), a quality specification the supplier signs against, and change control so a lot made next year matches the lot made this year. The unit price falls with commitment, but the contract adds obligations on both sides that a catalog purchase never carries.
The specifications that set the price
Four decisions do most of the work. Scale, because synthesis cost per base drops sharply as the column size rises. Purification, because desalted material is cheap and HPLC or PAGE grades add a separate step and a yield loss. Modifications, because every dye, quencher, phosphorothioate linkage or locked base is a separate reagent at a separate cost. And release testing, because a certificate that reports mass spectrometry and purity on every lot is a real analytical burden the supplier prices in. Write these down before you ask for a quote, or the quotes you receive will not be comparable.
Questions to settle before a supply agreement
Ask where the oligos are made and whether that site holds a quality certification your product will need. Ask for the lot-to-lot acceptance criteria in writing and for a sample certificate of analysis. Ask how a sequence change or a scale change is handled and what notice a discontinued modification gets. Ask about minimum order quantities, lead time at your forecast, and what happens to price if the forecast is missed. Finally ask for a second-source plan, because a single supplier for a product's critical reagent is a risk your own customers will eventually ask you about.
Where the price comparison helps
The vendor pages on this site record what each synthesis vendor publishes for standard oligos, verified on the vendor's own page and dated. That figure is not your OEM price, but it is the honest starting point: a vendor whose published per-base price is high rarely becomes the cheapest OEM source, and a vendor who publishes nothing is a vendor you will be negotiating with blind. Use the comparison to build a shortlist of three, then send the same written specification to each.
Oligo modifications and where they can sit
Oligo modifications are specified by chemistry and position: a five prime label, a three prime quencher, an internal base analogue, a backbone change. Not every combination is synthesisable and some require a different support or a post synthesis coupling, which is what drives the price and the scale. The purification needed follows from the modification rather than from the length.
Primer ordering and the fields that decide the price
Primer ordering comes down to scale, purification and format: a desalted plate of small scale primers and a single purified long oligo are different products from the same line. Delivery format matters for automation, since dried plates need a resuspension step with its own error. A stated yield rather than a concentration is what the supplier is actually promising.
An oligo synthesizer and the case for making them in house
An oligo synthesizer earns its place when turnaround rather than unit cost is the constraint, since reagent handling, waste and quality control add real overhead. Column count sets throughput and the chemistry sets what can be made at all. For most laboratories the calculation favors ordering, and the instrument is justified by unusual chemistries or by confidentiality rather than by price.
Oligo primers and the checks before they are ordered
Oligo primers are designed against a specific target and then checked for melting temperature match, secondary structure, primer dimers and specificity against the whole genome rather than the intended amplicon. Those checks cost minutes and save a synthesis. Where the primer carries a tail for cloning or sequencing, the tail is excluded from the melting temperature calculation for the annealing step.
Nucleoside phosphoramidites and the chemistry behind the order
Nucleoside phosphoramidites are the activated building blocks each synthesis cycle couples, and their quality sets the coupling efficiency that compounds over every base, which is why a long oligo is dominated by full length yield rather than by scale. Modified phosphoramidites are often the expensive line item, and some are supplied as a coupling service rather than as a catalog item.
A 25 nmole dna oligo and what the scale means
A 25 nmole dna oligo describes the synthesis scale rather than what arrives, since yield depends on length and purification, and the delivered amount is what the specification sheet states. For routine reactions the smallest scale is ample, and buying a larger scale to avoid reordering wastes more than it saves when the sequence changes. Storage as a dried pellet outlasts storage in water.
An oligonucleotide molecular weight calculator and the numbers it gives
An oligonucleotide molecular weight calculator turns a sequence into a mass, an extinction coefficient and a conversion between mass and moles, which is what a resuspension to a stated concentration needs. Modifications change all three, so the calculator has to know them. Absorbance at 260 nanometres with the sequence specific coefficient is the measurement, and a generic factor introduces a real error.
Questions people ask about oem oligos
What does OEM mean for oligos?
Original equipment manufacturer supply: oligonucleotides synthesised to your sequence and specification and delivered under your label or into your product, under a supply agreement rather than a per-tube catalog price.
How is an OEM oligo price quoted?
Usually per base at a stated scale and purification, with modifications and release testing itemised, against a forecast volume and a minimum order. Two quotes are only comparable if the specification behind them is identical.
Do I need HPLC purification for OEM oligos?
Only if the application needs it. Standard primers for PCR are usually fine desalted; probes with dyes, long oligos and anything going into a regulated product generally justify HPLC and a certificate of analysis on every lot.
Can a research vendor supply OEM oligos?
Most large synthesis vendors have an OEM or custom manufacturing arm alongside the catalog. The catalog price they publish is the place to start the conversation, not the price you will pay.