Illumina (ILMN (NASDAQ)) yesterday announced that it, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Verinata Health, Inc. (together “Illumina”), filed a patent infringement suit against Genoma SA in the Federal Patent Court in Switzerland.
Genoma is a fully owned subsidiary of Esperite and was created in May of 2014. Esperite itself is listed at Euronext Amsterdam and Paris (ESP (EURONEXT)). Illumina informs that it is seeking all available remedies, including damages and injunctive relief.
The patents asserted are EP 2 183 693 B1, EP 0 994 963 B2, EP 1 981 995 B1, and EP 2 514 842 B1, according to the press release. The patents are directed to using cell-free fetal DNA for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT).
The suit apparently accuses Genoma’s Tranquility® NIPT testing service, including its use of next-generation sequencing to analyze cell-free DNA from a sample of maternal blood. According to Illumina, Genoma’s testing facility in Switzerland also services samples collected from its other labs, including those located in Spain and Italy.
Illumina alleges that the Tranquility NIPT service uses the IONA® test sold by Premaitha Health plc. Illumina previously filed separate suits against Premaitha in the United Kingdom for sale of the IONA test.
See Illumina’s press release here.
Genoma SA is challenging a decision on liquidation which it had to face as a consequence of this litigation. See Esperite’s press release of May 19, 2017.
Reported by Martin WILMING
Genoma apparently got aware from the press that they have been sued. See the press release distributed via GlobeNewswire (http://goo.gl/eIlmYQ) and on Esperite’s website (http://www.esperite.com/?p=5421). Genoma is a company of the Esperite group of companies.
See also Premaitha’s press release here: http://www.premaitha.com/news/press-releases/20-news/431-22-april-2016-update-on-competitor-patent-litigation
seems Tranquility is still on sale; any news on this?
Not to my knowledge. The FPC has not published anything on the merits yet, except the separation of proceedings; see here.
See also this review on genomeweb.com: https://www.genomeweb.com/molecular-diagnostics/premaitha-vows-recover-970k-bankrupt-swiss-customer-genoma-take-over-nipt