Aria Diagnostics, Sequenom diagnostic news

Sequenom filed a motion for preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California to prevent Aria from infringing Sequenom's U.S. Patent No. 6,258,540 through the making or selling of tests for detecting fetal chromosomal aneuploidy, including Aria's Harmony Prenatal Test. The '540 patent covers prenatal diagnosis using nucleic acid analysis used in Sequenom's MaterniT21 Plus laboratory-developed test (LDT) and expires in 2018. Sequenom licensed the patent from the Isis Innovation Ltd. subsidiary of the University of Oxford (Oxford, U.K.) in 2005. Aria said it believes the filing for a preliminary injunction is without merit and plans to oppose it "vigorously." ...