Sequenom Acquires License to Digital PCR and Other Noninvasive Prenatal Diagnostic Intellectual Property
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Sequenom, Inc. has announced that it has acquired exclusive worldwide rights (excluding Hong Kong) to digital PCR and other noninvasive prenatal diagnostic intellectual property from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
The newly acquired rights expand Sequenom's existing, broad intellectual property portfolio of noninvasive prenatal diagnostic methods using fetal nucleic acids obtained from a maternal sample. Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Over the past several years, we have acquired numerous intellectual property assets to protect our plans to enter the noninvasive prenatal genetic diagnostic market and this license is another important addition to our broad and deep IP position in this area," said Harry Stylli, Ph.D., Sequenom's President and Chief Executive Officer.
"Our intellectual property includes exclusive rights to the widely recognized and pioneering work of Professor Dennis Lo of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and others. This intellectual property is platform-independent and provides Sequenom exclusivity for development and commercialization of noninvasive prenatal tests on any platform. This agreement expands our leadership position as we continue to advance our clinical development program and commercialization plans for our proprietary, noninvasive Trisomy 21 Down syndrome maternal blood test and other innovative prenatal diagnostic tests."
The exclusive, technology-independent, digital PCR rights, which were developed and validated on Sequenom's MassARRAY® platform and Fluidigm's platform, can be adapted for any of the digital PCR platforms that are available, and include the use of fetal nucleic acids obtained from a maternal sample, along with methods of analysis for noninvasive Down (trisomy 21), Edward (trisomy 18), Patau (trisomy 13) and other chromosomal aneuploidy syndrome diagnoses or other autosomal recessive disorders (e.g. cystic fibrosis, thalassemia, Ashkenazi Jewish diseases) utilizing digital PCR.
