NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – The Düsseldorf Regional Federal Court in Germany has issued a preliminary injunction against molecular diagnostic company Amedes MVZ Trägergesellschaft and a related company performing a noninvasive prenatal screening test called Fetalis, which is based on Ariosa Diagnostics' technology, Illumina said today.
Sequenom, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Laboratory Corporation of America, filed the application for a preliminary injunction, alleging that Amedes infringed on a European patent it holds, No. 0 994 963, relating to the detection of cell-free DNA for noninvasive prenatal screening. The patent is included in the patent pool that Illumina and Sequenom established in 2014.
Amedes, a network of 60 clinical laboratories and practices in Germany and Belgium, started offering the Fetalis test in Germany in July and launched it officially in September. The test looks for fetal trisomies 13, 18, and 21, as well as monosomy X, and was performed in the company's prenatal laboratories in Essen and Hannover.
Sequenom and Illumina have also sued companies in Australia, the UK, Switzerland, and Poland for patent infringement. Its UK lawsuits against Premaitha Health, The Doctor's Laboratory, TDL, and Ariosa will be heard together in 2017.
In the meantime, the European Commission's competition department is investigating Illumina and Sequenom for potential anticompetitive conduct regarding their NIPT patents.