NEW YORK – KeyGene said today that it has extended a worldwide, non-exclusive license agreement that grants Guardant Health the right to implement certain, undisclosed, next-generation sequencing technologies for which KeyGene holds patents.
The statement comes after another announcement on April 7 that the firm had also extended an existing worldwide non-exclusive license granted to LGC Biosearch Technologies for the commercial offering and use of KeyGene's patented SBG (Sequence-Based Genotyping) technology across agricultural and life sciences applications.
KeyGene did not detail which patents are involved in its licensing agreement with Guardant, but the firms' initial deal originated in 2017, according to documents filed by Guardant with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Guardant offers a suite of liquid biopsy test services, including its Guardant360 and GuardantOmni circulating tumor DNA profiling assays and its epigenetic Lunar assays, which are being developed for early cancer detection and monitoring.
Among KeyGene's IP portfolio, the company has listed patents that describe methods for oligonucleotide ligation-based sample barcoding and variant detection in the context of high-throughput sequencing.