NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Sequenom said in its Form 10-K filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week that the US Patent and Trademark Office on March 12 declared a patent interference between US Patent No. 8,008,018 held by Verinata Health, now part of Illumina, and Sequenom's pending patent application No. 13/070,275. In February 2012, Verinata and Stanford University sued Sequenom alleging it infringes the patent through the offering of its MaterniT21 Plus test.
Sequenom also said in its SEC document that on March 19 the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of USPTO ordered the commencement of inter partes review of certain claims related to US Patent No. 6,258,540, licensed by Sequenom. Ariosa Diagnostics asked for the review in September, as GenomeWeb Daily News sister publication Clinical Sequencing News reported at the time. Ariosa, formerly called Aria Diagnostics, sued Sequenom in 2011 over the patent.
The Life Sciences business of Beckman Coulter, which is part of Danaher, has reached a multi-year agreement with revenue management firm ServiceSource "to optimize the renewal of maintenance services business" with Beckman Coulter's existing customers.
ServiceSource said it will work to renew service contracts for pharmaceutical firms, research centers, and hospitals that use Beckman Coulter Life Sciences products such as sample preparation and cellular analysis products.
Expression Analysis, a Quintiles company, announced a grant program under which it and Illumina will award two grant winners fully funded exome and RNA sequencing services, as well as array-based methylation analysis. Applications are due by June 25. More information about the program and the application can be found here.
Crown Bioscience will have access to Horizon Discovery's X-Man isogenic cell lines for the development of novel in vivo models for drug discovery under a two-year collaboration. As part of the agreement, which builds on an earlier collaboration between the firms, Crown will use the X-Man cell lines to provide animal model development, study execution, and business marketing to its clients
The stock of Canadian cancer diagnostics company DiagnoCure has begun trading in the US on the OTCQX International under ticker symbol "DGCRF". Canaccord Genuity will be the "market maker" of DiagnoCure's stock, and Dorsey & Whitney will be its principal American liaison on OTCQX, providing guidance to DiagnoCure on OTCQX requirements and US securities law.
Pall is opening a Life Sciences Centre of Excellence at its new Harbourgate site in Portsmouth, UK, where capabilities in cell culture, purification, analytical solutions, protein characterization, and microbiological tools will be offered. The center is anticipated to open in mid-2013 and will complement similar centers of excellence in the US and centers previously announced in China, Singapore, and India.
Pressure BioSciences will be unable to file its Form 10-K with the US Securities and Exchange Commission "within the prescribed time frame" as key personnel with duties associated with the filing have left the firm, the company said.
In Brief This Week is a Friday column containing news items that our readers may have missed during the week.