4th Jul 2016 08:31
LONDON (Alliance News) - Premaitha Health PLC on Monday said its defence against Illumina Inc's patent infringement claim will be heard in court after patent hearings scheduled for July 2017 and following an ongoing investigation by the European Commission into potentially anticompetitive conduct by Illumina and Sequenom Inc in the non-invasive prenatal testing market.
Illumina is currently pursuing a patent case against Premaitha, claiming that its non-invasive pre-natal testing device, IONA, infringes on its patents, which Premaitha has denied, as well as pursuing cases against its customers in Poland and Switzerland.
Premaitha has said that it continues to believe that the patents held by Illumina are invalid, and in any event, the IONA test does not infringe them.
Premaitha said on Monday, a court management conference was held on Friday, in which the English court said it would consider Premaitha's competition law defence after the patent hearings scheduled for July, 2017, when it would have more certainty on the validity of the technical claims made, and an ongoing investigation by the European Commission into potentially anticompetitive conduct by Illumina and Sequenom.
Illumina's attempts to have the defence dismissed were refused, Premaitha said.
Premaitha added that Illumina was also ordered to provide an unredacted copy of its pooled patents agreement to Premaitha's legal advisers, which Illumina had previously refused. The agreement between Illumina and Sequenom was entered into in 2014 and provides the basis for the patent litigation claims made by Illumina against Premaitha in the UK and against Premaitha's customers in Poland and Switzerland.
Premaitha said, in regard to the Polish infringement action, it has intervened in the defence to ensure consistency in defence against Illumina.
"We are very pleased that the EU Competition Commission will be looking closely at Illumina's and Sequenom's conduct in the non-invasive prenatal testing market sector, and that the English Court will consider the alleged anti-competitive conduct if necessary after the patent hearings, now scheduled for July 2017," said Chief Executive Stephen Little.
"We brought this conduct to their attention and will actively cooperate with these investigations to shine a light on what we believe is a pernicious strategy to buy up intellectual property in the sector, and then to use this combined patent pool and aggressive legal actions to stop developers of alternative genetic/sequencing technology, thereby suppressing competition and ultimately restricting patient choice," Little added.
Shares in Premaitha were flat at 9.25 pence on Monday.
By Hannah Boland; [email protected]; @Hannaheboland
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