Quest Diagnostics, Myriad Genetics reach agreement to end BRCA gene-patent litigation

Quest Diagnostics (NYSE: DGX), the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, today announced that it and Myriad Genetics Inc. have reached an agreement that ends their BRCA gene-patent litigation.

Under the agreement, Quest Diagnostics and Myriad Genetics and its co-parties in the litigation, the University of Utah Research Foundation, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania, HSC Research and Development Limited Partnership, and Endorecherche, Inc. (collectively, "Myriad") dismiss their lawsuits, claims, counterclaims and disputes related to Myriad's patent claims on BRCA1 and BRCA2 in the litigation.

Myriad has also provided Quest Diagnostics and its physician, hospital and other customers and business partners a covenant not to sue with respect to the patents at issue. Quest Diagnostics has the right to continue to offer its BRCAvantage and other BRCA-related testing services in their present form and to develop and provide additional genomic testing services in the future based on the portfolio of patents asserted by Myriad in this case.

"We believe strongly that patients should have options in BRCA testing," said Jon R. Cohen, M.D., senior vice president, chief medical officer, and group executive -- diagnostic solutions businesses, Quest Diagnostics. "With the resolution of this matter, we can now devote our focus without distraction to serving the many patients who can benefit from our BRCAvantage offerings. We also look forward to continuing to develop new innovations that provide patients with insight into their genetic risk of cancer, so they can take actions to safeguard their health."

In October 2013, Quest Diagnostics introduced BRCAvantage™, a suite of next-generation sequencing services that help identify genetic risk for breast and ovarian cancer based on mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Since then, the company has continued to build its BRCAvantage offerings. The company provides access to these lab-developed test services in the United States.