European UPC Court of Appeal Overturns Injunction Impacting NanoString’s CosMx Products, Company to Immediately Resume Sales in 16 EU Countries
Court expresses significant doubts about the validity of the patent asserted by 10x Genomics in its ongoing litigation with NanoString
SEATTLE, February 26, 2024–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NanoString Technologies, Inc. (OTC: NSTGQ) (“NanoString”), a leading provider of life science tools for discovery and translational research, today announced that the European Unified Patent Court (“UPC”) Court of Appeal overturned a preliminary injunction that was previously issued by the Munich local division of the UPC in September and was impacting NanoString’s CosMx™ Spatial Molecular Imager (SMI) products in the EU. The decision allows NanoString to immediately resume sales of all CosMx products in 16 impacted UPC member countries. In its detailed ruling, the court cited substantial concerns about the invalidity of the asserted claim of European Patent 4108782B1 (the “‘782 Patent”), noting that it is “highly probable that the patent will not prove to be legally valid.”
“We have maintained from the outset of this case that the patents being asserted by 10x and Harvard against us are invalid. The court’s ruling is significant validation of our position. We are grateful to the UPC Court of Appeal for its in-depth analysis of the validity of the patent at issue and feel vindicated by its finding that it is ‘overwhelmingly likely’ that the patent is invalid on the basis of prior art,” said Brad Gray, President and CEO of NanoString.
“Going back to 2021, 10x has chosen to deploy a highly questionable litigation campaign against NanoString and several other innovative companies in the marketplace in what we believe is an effort to eliminate competition in the research tools space to the detriment of science and the public good,” Gray continued. “We believe that with today’s decision, the tide is turning in favor of NanoString and scientific freedom. By seeking to enforce invalid and ill-gotten patents, 10x has caused untold disruption to scientific progress and tremendous harm to NanoString’s customers, employees, and investors. NanoString is committed to continuing our fight for choice and intends to seek damages that will compensate for the hardship caused by the plaintiffs’ unjustified preliminary injunction. Throughout this process, we will remain steadfast in our mission to invest our resources in innovation as opposed to litigation.”
Today’s decision lifts the preliminary injunction in all 17 UPC member countries in the EU. In a separate decision in December concerning the related European patent 2794928 B1 (the “‘928 Patent”), the German Higher Regional Court of Munich ordered the lifting of an injunction on the sale of CosMx products in Germany subject to a security bond payment. NanoString is evaluating its next steps in Germany in light of today’s decision from the UPC and for now the German injunction remains in place.
Earlier in February, in an open letter to Genetic Engineering News, leading scientists sounded the alarm on the negative impact that patent litigation is having on the field of spatial biology and called for antitrust action. NanoString provides the scientific community with highly effective spatial biology tools with capabilities for both spatial transcriptomics and spatial proteomics that exceed those of any other spatial analysis systems. The company is proud of the role its CosMx SMI products serve in helping the scientific community to better understand the genome and its functions and ultimately drive breakthrough scientific discoveries that produce lifesaving medical benefits for patients around the world. The CosMx SMI platform has been installed at approximately 180 customer sites to date.
About NanoString
NanoString Technologies, a leader in spatial biology, offers an ecosystem of innovative discovery and translational research solutions, empowering our customers to map the universe of biology. The GeoMx® Digital Spatial Profiler is a flexible and consistent solution combining the power of whole tissue imaging with gene expression and protein data for spatial whole transcriptomics and proteomics. The CosMx™ Spatial Molecular Imager is a single-cell imaging platform powered by spatial multiomics enabling researchers to map single cells in their native environments to extract deep biological insights and novel discoveries from one experiment. The AtoMx™ Spatial Informatics Platform is a cloud-based informatics solution with advanced analytics and global collaboration capabilities, enabling powerful spatial biology insights anytime, anywhere. At the foundation of our research tools is our nCounter® Analysis System, which offers a secure way to easily profile the expression of hundreds of genes, proteins, miRNAs, or copy number variations, simultaneously with high sensitivity and precision. On February 4, 2024, NanoString Technologies and certain of its wholly owned subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions for relief under chapter 11 of title 11 of the United States Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. For more information, visit www.nanostring.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding our expectations regarding litigation and remedies, the ultimate disposition of the pending litigation, expectations around seeking costs and damages, the impact of the pending litigation on our business and our operations and business outlook. Such statements are based on current assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, include that we may be unsuccessful in the litigation; ongoing litigation may be prolonged, and a final disposition may be delayed; market acceptance of our products; adverse conditions in the general domestic and global economic markets; the effects of ongoing litigation on our business; the impact of competition; as well as the other risks set forth in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. NanoString Technologies disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
NanoString, NanoString Technologies, the NanoString logo, GeoMx, CosMx, AtoMx and nCounter are trademarks or registered trademarks of NanoString Technologies, Inc. in various jurisdictions.
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Contacts
Meg O’Conor
Director of Public Relations
NanoString Technologies, Inc.
[email protected]
(206) 735-8495
