This article was updated to include a statement from Exact Sciences.
NEW YORK – Geneoscopy announced Monday that the US Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted an inter partes review of the patentability of Exact Sciences' US Patent No. 11,634,781, which covers a central component in Exact's Cologuard assay.
St. Louis-based Geneoscopy petitioned the US Patent and Trademark Office for the inter partes review earlier this month.
In a decision filed last week, the PTAB determined that Geneoscopy had established a "reasonable likelihood" of being able to show the unpatentability of at least one claim the company had alleged in its petition for the review.
Exact Sciences sued Geneoscopy last year alleging that Geneoscopy's ColoSense colorectal cancer screening test infringes upon the '781 patent. Geneoscopy filed a countersuit against Exact Sciences last month.
"The PTAB's decision to institute an IPR against the '781 patent is a positive step for Geneoscopy," Andrew Barnell, CEO and cofounder of Geneoscopy, said in a statement. "This ruling highlights our long-held belief that the '781 patent claims are invalid and that the patent infringement suit brought by Exact Sciences is meritless."
Morry Smulevitz, senior vice president of corporate affairs at Exact Sciences, commented via email that Geneoscopy requested the USPTO to examine the patentabilty of the '781 patent last year.
"The result was that the USPTO confirmed patentability of all claims," Smulevitz said. "Exact Sciences does not believe that this second attempt to invalidate the ‘781 patent is any stronger than Geneoscopy’s first, failed, attempt. We will defend the validity of the ‘781 patent through the [review] process."