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Quest Diagnostics, Ravgen Settle Patent Infringement Suit

NEW YORK — Quest Diagnostics and Ravgen settled a patent infringement lawsuit Friday over the technology used in Quest's QNatal Advanced noninvasive prenatal test.

The companies had been scheduled to start a jury trial Tuesday.

Ravgen had sued Quest in the US District Court for the Central District of California on accusations that Quest infringed on two patents, US Patent Nos. 7,332,277 and 7,727,720. Those patents involve a process of analyzing fetal cell-free DNA by using an agent to inhibit cell lysis in maternal blood samples and detect genetic disorders in the fetus by identifying ratios of alleles to distinguish between maternal and fetal DNA.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. John Desmarais, lead counsel for Ravgen, said in a statement, "We are pleased with the settlement and will continue our efforts to reach licensing agreements with other companies in the industry for their prenatal genetic testing products that infringe Ravgen's patents."

Ravgen has sued eight diagnostic companies since June 2020 on allegations involving the two patents. In September, a jury awarded Ravgen about $273 million in damages in a similar lawsuit against Laboratory Corporation of America. Labcorp provided a statement at the time that the company was considering an appeal.

The other companies are Illumina, Roche subsidiary Ariosa, Myriad Genetics, Natera, PerkinElmer, and Biora Therapeutics, which was previously named Progenity. PerkinElmer and Ravgen settled their lawsuit in September 2021 with undisclosed terms.

Quest, Illumina, and Labcorp are also challenging the validity of the patents before the US Patent and Trademark Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

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