A jury in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware has ruled in favor of Natera in its patent infringement case against CareDx, awarding the firm approximately $96.3 million in damages in a unanimous verdict.
Following a weeklong trial, the jury found that CareDx’s AlloSure and AlloSeq kidney transplant tests infringe on one of the two Natera patents at issue. Furthermore, the jury provided an advisory verdict to the judge asserting that the claims for both patents are valid.
The jury awarded Natera $83.7 million in lost profits and $12.6 million in past royalties.
The patents at issue in the lawsuit pertain to the use of cell-free DNA in assessing the risk of rejection following kidney transplant.
In 2022, CareDx won a $45 million jury award against Natera for false advertising in a related case; that award was thrown out by a Delaware judge in 2023, although he affirmed that Natera had falsely advertised that its competing Prospera tests were more effective than AlloSure. CareDx received an injunction later that year prohibiting Natera from falsely advertising and overstating the performance of the Prospera test.
In October 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal by CareDx of a lower court ruling invalidating patents that CareDx had accused Natera of infringing in a separate case.
