NEW YORK – Natera announced this week that the District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina granted its request to add a patent in its ongoing lawsuit against NeoGenomics. That lawsuit now includes patent No. 11,319,596, in addition to patent No. 11,530,454. Natera asserts that NeoGenomics’ RaDaR test for minimal residual disease infringes those patents. The court had previously granted a preliminary injunction followed by a permanent injunction against a previous version of the RaDaR test.
Enzo Biochem this week reported that its fiscal first quarter revenues, for the three months ended Oct. 31, fell 21 percent to $6.2 million from $7.8 million a year ago due to declining market demand related to continued headwinds in the life sciences tools space. The company shaved its Q1 net loss to $3.4 million, or $.07 per share, from a net loss of $6.6 million, or $.13 per share, a year ago. Enzo ended the quarter with cash and cash equivalents of $47.7 million.
Tempus said this week that it has signed agreements for in-network provider status with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, Blue Shield of California, and laboratory benefit manager Avalon Healthcare Solutions. Under its agreement with Avalon, Tempus is a participating provider with BCBS North Carolina, BCBS South Carolina, BCBS Vermont, Capital BlueCross, and CareSource in four markets. Patients with these insurance plans will now have access to Tempus' comprehensive molecular profiling portfolio.
Spatial transcriptomics firm Vizgen announced the creation of a certified service provider program this week. Partners include South Korea's Portrai, Switzerland's Foundation Campus Biotech Geneva, the UK's Earlham Institute, California-based Canopy Multiomic Services, the Center for Spatial Multi-Omics at the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), and the Sanderson Center for Optical Experimentation at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.
Complete Genomics said this week that it has added Framingham, Massachusetts-based Eurofins Clinical Enterprise to its sequencing service provider program. Eurofins Clinical Enterprise will offer various sequencing services on the DNBSeq-T7 platform, including whole-genome sequencing, low-pass whole-genome sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and single-cell sequencing.
Single-cell sequencing firm Parse Biosciences said this week that New Jersey-based Admera Health has joined the firm's certified service provider program.
The Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah this week said it will participate in the myeloMATCH clinical trial sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. Within the trial, patients with acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome are matched to a treatment arm based on genomic profiling and are assigned to different tiers of treatment based on their responses to therapies monitored using measurable residual disease (MRD) testing.
Lucid Diagnostics said this week that it has formed a partnership with the first responder-focused healthcare provider VitalExam to offer firefighters access to Lucid's EsoGuard Esophageal DNA Test for the early detection of esophageal precancer. Lucid noted that it has been pursuing partnerships through a direct contracting initiative to increase near-term revenues from the EsoGuard assay and to complement the company's efforts to secure reimbursement for the test. In September, the firm also inked a deal with Front Line Mobile Health to explore opportunities to promote EsoGuard among firefighters and other first responders.
Polish life sciences firm Scope Fluidics said this week that it recently finalized the sale of its Curiosity Diagnostics subsidiary to Bio-Rad Laboratories for $130 million after receiving the final payments for the deal. Two years ago, Bio-Rad announced that the firms had reached a $170 million agreement for the acquisition of Curiosity Diagnostics, which had been developing a PCR system called PCR One. That sample-to-answer PCR testing system is used for the detection of up to 20 targets, with a turnaround time of 15 minutes.
Becton Dickinson said this week that it has reached a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm agreed to pay a $175 million civil penalty and to retain an independent compliance consultant but neither admitted nor denied the findings of an SEC investigation related to the BD Alaris infusion pump. The SEC previously determined that BD continued to sell the Alaris pump after making software changes requiring regulatory review. When the software was later found to have flaws, the SEC said BD misled investors by not disclosing the material impacts of these actions and instead reaffirming its financial guidance. The $175 million was reserved and disclosed in the company's fiscal year 2024 Form 10-K and was considered in its fiscal year 2025 cash flow plan, BD said. The company is not updating its fiscal 2025 guidance as a result of the settlement.
T2 Biosystems said this week that it extended its multiyear capital equipment supplier agreement with group purchasing organization Vizient through March 31, 2026. The agreement allows Vizient members access to contracted pricing for the T2Dx Instrument, the T2Bacteria Panel, and the T2Candida Panel.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on GenomeWeb.