Illumina & Sequenom Pool NIPT Intellectual Property, End Patent Disputes

(RTTNews) - Illumina, Inc. (ILMN) and Sequenom, Inc. (SQNM) Wednesday said they have agreed to settle all pending infringement claims and other disputes between Sequenom and Verinata Health, Inc.

The parties will pool their owned and in-licensed intellectual property directed to noninvasive prenatal testing or NIPT, including patents that will remain the subject of ongoing interference proceedings.

Under the agreement, Illumina will have exclusive worldwide rights to utilize the pooled intellectual property to develop and sell in-vitro diagnostic kits for NIPT and to license third-party laboratories wishing to develop and sell their own laboratory-developed NIPT tests under the collection of pooled patents.

Further, Sequenom and Illumina will each have rights to utilize all pooled patents to develop and sell their own respective laboratory-developed NIPT tests.

The parties will share the revenue from the patent pool and Illumina will pay Sequenom a royalty on sales of in-vitro diagnostic kits for NIPT.

Illumina will make a $50 million upfront payment to Sequenom as part of the overall agreement, as well as certain ongoing commitments for payments to Sequenom from the patent pool structure through 2020.

Separately, Illumina and Sequenom entered into an amended supply agreement whereby Illumina agreed to supply Sequenom with instruments and reagents for an additional five years.