A US court has ordered Guardant Health to pay TwinStrand Biosciences and the University of Washington (UW) $245.2m after upholding a November 2023 jury verdict that found the company liable for infringing on patented DNA sequencing technologies.
The US District Court of Columbia’s judgement ends a complaint TwinStrand filed in August 2021, asserting that Guardant infringed on two core patents underlying TwinStrand’s and UW’s Duplex Sequencing technology
Duplex Sequencing is a form of next-generation DNA sequencing technology that the Washington-based company asserts can achieve more than 10,000-fold greater accuracy than conventional sequencing methods. The technology was originally invented and developed at UW, with TwinStrand spinning out from the university in 2015. The patent infringements for this technology were determined to span 11 of Guardant’s products and services, including its Guardant360 CDx comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) assay for detecting tumour DNA mutations in patients with advanced solid cancer.
In judge Gregory Williams’ final ruling, Guardant has been ordered to pay TwinStrand and UW $245.2m, a figure combining damages, accrued royalties and interest for infringement. The figure marks an increase on the $83m verdict from November 2023. TwinStrand’s board chair, Chad Waite, said: “Duplex Sequencing solved an accuracy problem the sequencing field had worked on for years, and this judgment affirms the jury’s finding that Guardant Health built products on that invention without a license. “We remained steadfast in our conviction that the facts would prevail, and they have.