NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Sequenom said today that it has licensed from Xenomics intellectual property for use in prenatal research and diagnostic tests.
The exclusive license gives Sequenom global rights to use certain transrenal fetal nucleic acids in maternal urine for non-invasive prenatal diagnostics and analysis. The technology may be used on a technology-independent basis for “all uses,” excluding the determination of fetal gender solely by the presence of Y chromosome, Sequenom said.
The agreement, which covers the rights to US Patents 6,251,638 and RE 39,920 and European Patent EP 0920539, extends the company’s SEQureDx prenatal diagnostic technology by enabling it to develop products for noninvasive fetal sampling and testing.
Sequenom’s technology is based on other IP it licensed exclusively from Isis Innovation, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and from Genomic Nanosystems.
Because the license rights are platform-independent, the company said, it may develop and commercialize tests on any platform, not limited to its MassArray system.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.