A federal jury in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled in favor of Guardant Health in a lawsuit the company filed against Natera in May 2021.
The jury awarded Guardant Health $292.5 million on the claims of false advertising and unfair competition, including $175.5 million in punitive damages. The jury rejected all of Natera's counterclaims against Guardant in the case.
In the suit, Palo Alto, CA-based Guardant claimed that Natera made "literally false and misleading statements" in its advertising and promotion. Guardant alleged that Natera disparaged Guardant's Reveal assay, a minimal residual disease (MRD) test for early-stage colorectal cancer, in claiming its own competing Signatera assay to be superior to Reveal "across a variety of metrics," which the company asserted were false or misleadingly presented. In a statement, Guardant characterized this as part of "a deliberate campaign to mislead cancer clinicians about Guardant Reveal … in favor of Signatera."
In response to the verdict, the Austin, TX-based Natera issued a statement saying, "We disagree with this decision and will ask the Court to overturn it." The firm added that "Signatera has become the most widely used MRD test in the U.S., extensively validated with published evidence in more than 100 peer-reviewed papers across multiple cancer types and indications."
