NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Quest Diagnostics today said that it has signed an agreement to offer a non-invasive prenatal test developed by Natera.
The Panorama test uses cell-free fetal DNA in circulating maternal blood to screen for trisomy 21, 18, and 13, as well as monosomy X. It can be used as early as the ninth week of pregnancy, the firms said.
Natera's test is a competitor to a number of non-invasive prenatal tests being developed or already sold, including those offered by Sequenom and Verinata Health, which recently inked a deal to be acquired by Illumina and an exclusive US marketing agreement for its Verifi test with PerkinElmer, as well as Ariosa Diagnostics, whose Harmony Prenatal Test is offered by Laboratory Corporation of America.
Under the agreement announced today, Quest will forward patient specimens for testing at Natera's CLIA lab in San Carlos, Calif. Quest expects to make the Panorama test available to physicians in certain regions in March and nationwide in the US in April.
"The broad availability of the test through Quest Diagnostics, a leader in women's health diagnostics, will help many more women and parents access DNA-based non-invasive prenatal screening," Natera CEO Matthew Rabinowitz said in a statement.
Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed.