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Ariosa Licenses Harmony NIPT to Sonic Healthcare

NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Roche's Ariosa Diagnostics said today that it has licensed its Harmony Prenatal Test to Sonic Healthcare, which will make the test available in Australia and the UK. 

Under the license, Sonic will provide the Harmony test and cell-free DNA system through its labs in Australia and Sonic's UK counterpart The Doctors Laboratory. The blood-based test evaluates the risk of trisomy 21 in the fetus and can be used as early as 10 weeks into the pregnancy. 

Ariosa COO Dave Mullarkey said in a statement the deal is part of the firm's strategy to make the Harmony test available in Asia-Pacific, Europe, and elsewhere. Financial and other terms of the agreement were not disclosed. 

In June Ariosa said that it had licensed the test to several European laboratories. It also said that its FORTE software, which is part of the test, had received the CE mark, and the company had licensed it to laboratories.

Sonic is headquartered in Sydney, Australia and said that it is the continent's largest network of primary care medical centers.

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