NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Natera said today that it is ending its distribution agreement with Bio-Reference Laboratories, and plans instead to promote its Panorama noninvasive prenatal test and Horizon carrier screening test directly to clinicians.
The news comes a week after Natera filed suit against Bio-Reference, claiming that the firm breached a contract when it launched and promoted its own noninvasive prenatal test based on technology it licensed from Illumina. Bio-Reference had been offering the Panorama NIPT test since 2013, but launched its own assay, ClariTest, last month.
"Over the last three years, we have increasingly focused our commercial efforts on our direct channel in the United States," Natera CEO Matthew Rabinowitz said in a statement. "While we continue to enjoy highly productive commercial relationships with regional laboratory partners and hospital systems, transitioning from large national laboratory partners to our direct channel significantly reduces channel conflict and has been a very successful approach for Natera."