INDUSTRY NEWS
In U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin, a jury unanimously found that Abbott Laboratories (Abbott Park, IL) willfully infringed a patent held by Innogenetics (Ghent, Belgium), which covers a method of genotyping the hepatitis C virus. The verdict directs Abbott to pay Innogenetics $7 million for infringement damages to date. At the judge’s discretion, that award may be increased up to three times the amount because the jury specifically determined Abbott’s patent infringement was willful. Based on the strength of the verdict and the determination that the infringement was willful, Innogenetics will seek an injunction against Abbott’s products that infringe its patent and pursue other available remedies.
Stratagene Corp. (La Jolla, CA) obtained an exclusive option to evaluate and license a family of patents and patent applications controlled by Aros Applied Biotechnology (Arhus, Denmark), a contract research organization and service laboratory offering molecular testing. Under the terms of the agreement, Stratagene will have the right to evaluate and exclusively license the rights to certain gene groups that have been shown to have predictive capabilities for certain cancers. Joseph A. Sorge, MD, Stratagene’s president and chief executive officer, said that the company regards this new agreement as another significant milestone for its molecular diagnostics growth strategy.
Affymetrix Inc. (Santa Clara, CA) and Partners HealthCare (Boston) entered into a three-year translational research collaboration to develop microarray-based diagnostics for complex diseases such as newborn hearing loss, autism, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Under the terms of the agreement, researchers at the Harvard Medical School–Partners HealthCare Center for Genetics and Genomics will create and validate microarray tests in CLIA laboratories. Scientists will use Affymetrix GeneChip genotyping, resequencing, and expression technologies in the CLIA lab to apply RNA and DNA patterns more rapidly, in tests that can better classify, manage, and treat complex diseases.
The automation division of Remmele Engineering (St. Paul, MN) received a special award from a leading manufacturer of IVD materials, recognizing its innovative approach to providing human-machine interface (HMI) solutions. The award was inspired by Remmele’s recognition of the need for operator involvement in the creation of an exceptional HMI. In presenting the award, Remmele’s client cited the astounding results they have seen from Remmele’s HMI approach, including minimized operator motion and unnecessary actions, and automation of the batch recording process.
