22nd Apr 2016 13:47
LONDON (Alliance News) - Premaitha Health PLC said Friday noted that Illumina Inc has initiated patent infringement proceedings against one of its customers, Genoma SA, in Switzerland.
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.
Premaitha reiterated that it continues to believe that the patents held by Illumina are invalid, and in any event, the IONA test does not infringe them.
Earlier this week the High Court in London rejected an application by Illumina to change which patents would be determined at a previously scheduled trial in October 2016, and instead accepted Premaitha's counter-proposal for a combined trial on all three patents to be held at the next available date, likely to be summer 2017.
This means that the trial will now be held in conjunction with proceedings Illumina has brought against TDL Genetics Ltd, The Doctors Laboratory Ltd and Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc.
Premaitha also applied to include an antitrust defence and counterclaim, alleging that Illumina's actions raise "serious anticompetitive issues", and the court has ordered that Illumina has until May 28 to present any arguments as to why Premaitha's application should not be accepted.
"This lawsuit is another blatant attempt to distract people from Illumina's own travails in Europe and is a continuation of its attempts to restrict competition in the European NIPT market. We believe pregnant women should not be denied choice in their decisions for prenatal care. We will support our customers against such actions and we remain focused on delivering market-leading prenatal screening to patients around the world," said Chief Executive of Premaitha Stephen Little in a statement Friday.
Shares in Premaitha were down 8.0% at 9.55 pence Friday morning.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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