How it started
History
On August 4, 2011, Sequenom said it would call its new blood test for Down syndrome in pregnancy MaterniT21 when the product went on sale in the United States.
On August 11, 2011, Sequenom announced a European licensing agreement with LifeCodexx. The companies agreed to collaborate in the development and launch of a trisomy 21 laboratory-developed test and other aneuploidies testing in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, with the potential for additional launches in other countries. Under the initial five year licensing agreement, Sequenom granted LifeCodexx licenses to key patent rights, including European Patent EP0994963B1 and pending application EP2183693A1 that enable the development and commercialization of a non-invasive aneuploidy test utilizing circulating cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma.
On October 24, 2011 International Society of Prenatal Diagnostics (ISPD) issued a rapid response statement in response to the launch of Sequenom non-invasive Trisomy 21 (MaterniT21) test.
On October 17, 2011 Sequenom announced that a clinical validation study leading to the introduction of the MaterniT21 LDT had been published in the journal Genetics in Medicine. On October 17, 2011 Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine announced the launch of MaterniT21 Noninvasive Prenatal Test for Down Syndrome.
From Wikipedia’s article on Sequenom, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3