Qiagen and BD settle PCR lawsuit for £53m
Qiagen will pay Becton, Dickinson (BD) $53 million to settle an ongoing patent infringement lawsuit over polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostics patents.
The suit relates to Qiagen’s NeuMoDx 96 and NeuMoDx 288 clinical PCR systems, which Qiagen acquired from NeuMoDx in 2020.
Qiagen and co-defendants who were former officers of NeuMoDx have agreed to settle all pending litigation with BD with a “one-time, lump-sum” payment, the German medical technology company announced on Thursday, November 5.
A notice of settlement has yet to be submitted to the US District Court for the District of Delaware.
BD and two of its subsidiaries sued medical systems company NeuMoDx in June 2019, claiming that the company infringed six patents related to its molecular testing system BD Max.
According to the initial complaint, NeuMoDx founder Jeffery Williams, who is listed as a named inventor on two of the asserted patents, used technology developed as part of the BD Max to develop its own testing system. BD demanded a jury trial on the matter.
NeuMoDx filed counterclaims claiming that the patents were invalid and unenforceable due to obviousness over prior art.
In September 2020, Qiagen fully acquired NeuMoDx, buying up an 80.1% stake in the company for $248 million. As part of the agreement, Qiagen started distributing the NeuMoDx 96 and the NeuMoDx 288 platform in Europe and other markets outside the US.
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