10x Genomics is seeking additional
injunctions to protect its intellectual property
PLEASANTON, Calif., May 17, 2023
/PRNewswire/ -- 10x Genomics, Inc. (Nasdaq: TXG), a leader in
single cell and spatial biology, today announced that it has
won an injunction in its patent litigation against NanoString
Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: NSTG) and NanoString Technologies
Germany GmbH.
The Munich Regional Court issued a permanent injunction today
that - once provisionally enforced against a security bond -
requires NanoString to stop selling and supplying the CosMx Spatial
Molecular Imager (CosMx SMI) instruments as well as CosMx reagents
for RNA detection in Germany. The
Munich Regional Court issued the injunction based on its finding
that the CosMx products infringe European Patent Number 2794928B1,
which relates to in situ detection of analytes. In its decision,
the Munich Regional Court referenced an earlier preliminary opinion
by the German Federal Patent Court finding the asserted claims of
the patent valid.
"10x has invested more than $1
billion in cutting edge research and development, resulting
in many breakthrough products and more than 800 patents, including
foundational intellectual property for our in situ products," said
Eric S. Whitaker, Chief Legal
Officer of 10x Genomics. "If we are to continue to be on the
forefront of innovation, we cannot stand by and simply allow others
to take and use our intellectual property. We have already
requested an injunction against NanoString's infringing CosMx
products in the United States and
expect to seek other injunctions where NanoString's infringing
CosMx products are sold."
10x Genomics filed its patent infringement lawsuit against
NanoString in Germany in
March 2022. Despite the risk of an
injunction and the significant repercussions it could have on
researchers, NanoString has continued to market CosMx to labs
worldwide. Nicole Droste,
NanoString's Vice President of Sales, EMEA, understood this,
declaring under oath, "An injunction against NanoString in
Germany would likely make
customers in other European countries fearful of purchasing a CosMx
instrument because they may not be able to use it for RNA
detection." Ms. Droste also recognized the international
consequences of infringing patents, "An injunction issued by the
German Court could likely have a wide-ranging impact on
NanoString's business outside Germany as well."
Since its founding in 2012, 10x Genomics has focused on a broad
array of key technologies and intellectual property to further its
mission of developing breakthrough products capable of
interrogating biology at the needed resolution and scale. 10x
Genomics' acquisitions of ReadCoor and Cartana in 2020 accelerated
its technology development of the Xenium in situ platform and
provided 10x with access to key inventions from the earliest
pioneers of in situ analysis. These patents, which were filed
beginning in 2011, relate to the initial discoveries of critical
and foundational technical features underpinning 10x's in situ
product with the requisite sensitivity, specificity, plexy, and
throughput.
Additional Patent Infringement Allegations Against
NanoString
10x Genomics has initiated legal action against NanoString on
more than 12 other patents, a number of which are related to the
patent asserted in Germany. 10x Genomics is seeking an
injunction, in addition to other remedies, against NanoString's
GeoMx and CosMx products in the following further actions, in
addition to the injunction issued in Germany:
- On May 6, 2021, 10x Genomics
filed suit against NanoString in the U.S. District Court for the
District of Delaware alleging that
NanoString's GeoMx Digital Spatial Profiler and associated
instruments, reagents and services infringe: (a) U.S. Patent No.
10,472,669; (b) U.S. Patent No. 10,961,566; (c) U.S. Patent No.
10,983,113; (d) U.S. Patent No. 10,996,219; (e) U.S. Patent No.
11,001,878; (f) U.S. Patent No. 11,008,607; and (g) U.S. Patent No.
11,293,917.
- On February 28, 2022, 10x
Genomics filed a second suit against NanoString in the U.S.
District Court for the District of Delaware alleging that NanoString's CosMx
Spatial Molecular Imager and associated instruments, reagents and
services infringe (a) U.S. Patent No. 10,227,639; (b) U.S. Patent
No. 11,021,737; (c) U.S. Patent No. 11,293,051; (d) U.S. Patent No.
11,293,052; (e) U.S. Patent No. 11,293,054; and (f) U.S. Patent No.
11,542,554.
Special Promotions Available to Support Labs Affected by
NanoString's CosMx Injunction
10x Genomics is launching special programs to help researchers
worldwide who are concerned about product availability easily
transition to the Xenium platform for in situ analysis. Any
customer which ordered a CosMx on or before May 17, 2023 is eligible for these promotions and
is invited to contact 10x Genomics for further information.
"NanoString's decision to use 10x's intellectual property could
have unfortunate repercussions on researchers around the world,"
said Jim Wilbur, Chief Commercial
Officer at 10x Genomics. "At 10x Genomics, we take our mission to
accelerate the mastery of biology seriously, and we will not let
the actions of others slow science down. We're also confident
researchers who take this opportunity to switch to Xenium will
quickly discover it is - by far - the best performing system for in
situ analysis."
Xenium Platform for In Situ Analysis
10x Genomics is intensely focused on driving the company's
innovation engine to advance scientific research and to provide the
best value to customers, including through its Xenium platform for
in situ analysis, which offers researchers a number of performance
advantages:
- Sensitivity: Because of unique features inherent in the
platform's chemistry, Xenium delivers high sensitivity, even on
difficult tissues, ensuring researchers can reliably measure their
genes of interest, even when lowly expressed.
- Specificity: Xenium's chemistry delivers high
specificity, giving customers confidence that each transcript
detected is the intended one and ensuring no phantom genes or cells
in their samples.
- Throughput: Xenium is a high throughput in situ
platform, enabling researchers to analyze the most tissue area in a
short amount of time. Xenium also offers a large imaging area,
providing researchers maximum flexibility to run single large
sections, multiple smaller sections, or even tissue
microarrays.
- Custom and curated gene panels: 10x Genomics' gene panel
strategy was designed to help customers answer their specific
research questions, leveraging the company's single cell expertise
and published datasets to inform ideal and high performing panel
design. The company offers panels in multiple formats to provide
flexibility, including pre-designed tissue-specific panels,
pre-designed multi-tissue panels, and fully custom panels.
Customers can currently add up to 100 custom genes to all
pre-designed panels to ensure all relevant genes are included in
their research.
- Software and data analysis: Xenium features
comprehensive primary and secondary onboard analysis in parallel
with the instrument run — including cell segmentation and
clustering results. This enables researchers to directly access
their data on the Xenium instrument immediately after the run is
done, without the need for onerous post-instrument analysis or
massive uploads, downloads or data transfers. Customers who want
more off-instrument interpretation can easily do so using Xenium
Explorer or a wide variety of open source tools, all of which
significantly reduces the computational burden on customers.
- Compatibility with standard pathology, including
H&E: Xenium leaves the tissue morphology intact. This
enables additional insights from the same tissue section post-run,
allowing researchers to look at correspondences between the
molecular data and the morphological images on the exact same
precious tissue section.
- Powerful applications: Xenium's unique chemistry will
enable researchers to go beyond gene expression to powerful
applications that will be exclusive to the Xenium platform,
including isoform mapping and SNV detection. Additionally, 10x will
be launching an in-line protein assay to combine with the RNA
assays on the exact same tissue section. These capabilities are all
part of the company's robust product development roadmap for the
platform.
Background and Additional Details on the German Litigation,
Decision and Enforcement
- The European patent 2794928 B1 asserted in the German
litigation (Case No. 7 O 2693/22) on March
4, 2022 relates to in situ detection of analytes using
multiple optical detection cycles.
- The German Federal Patent Court rendered a written preliminary
opinion on February 7, 2023,
according to which the patent is valid in amended form. A hearing
is scheduled for May 7, 2024 (Case
No. 3 Ni 20/22 (EP)).
- The Munich Regional Court found that the patent asserted by 10x
Genomics was enforceable and infringed by NanoString. The Munich
Regional Court did not have concerns about its validity.
- The injunction will be provisionally enforced by 10x Genomics
after providing a security bond in the amount of 3.5 million Euros and includes any CosMx reagents
for RNA detection as well as the use of CosMx Spatial Molecular
Imager (CosMx SMI) instruments. The decision of the Munich Regional
Court injunction is subject to appeal.
- The full opinion of the Munich Regional Court is available
here: 10xgen.com/munich-spatial-news
About 10x Genomics
10x Genomics is a life science technology company building
products to interrogate, understand and master biology to advance
human health. Our integrated solutions include instruments,
consumables and software for analyzing biological systems at a
resolution and scale that matches the complexity of biology. 10x
Genomics products have been adopted by researchers around the world
including in all of the top 100 global research institutions as
ranked by Nature in 2021 based on publications and all of the top
20 global pharmaceutical companies by 2021 research and development
spend and have been cited in over 5,000 research papers on
discoveries ranging from oncology to immunology and neuroscience.
Our patent portfolio comprises more than 1,750 issued patents and
patent applications.
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SOURCE 10x Genomics, Inc.
