QIAGEN Gaithersburg Inc. (QIAGEN Gaithersburg), a wholly-owned subsidiary of QIAGEN N.V. announced the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) denied an appeal by Third Wave Technologies Inc (Third Wave), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hologic, Inc. and affirmed a lower court decision which was favorable for QIAGEN Gaithersburg.
The CAFC denied a Third Wave cross-appeal of the antitrust decision in favor of QIAGEN Gaithersburg and upheld a January 2008 ruling by Judge Barbara B. Crabb of US District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Judge Crabb dismissed the antitrust claims against QIAGEN Gaithersburg, noting that QIAGEN Gaithersburg “is selling a product that many customers prefer over the product the defendant is selling, with the not surprising result that defendant has not captured as many customers as it wishes it had.”
In their ruling, the judges noted that “The district court also correctly found the contracts did not have an anti-competitive effect: Instead; as Digene (now QIAGEN Gaithersburg) points out and Third Wave does not dispute, the vast majority of Digene’s (now QIAGEN Gaithersburg) contracts were entered into after Third Wave was already competing on the market,”.
The Federal Circuit also ruled on QIAGEN Gaithersburg’s patent infringement appeal against Third Wave, denying the appeal. QIAGEN Gaithersburg had alleged that Third Wave’s Invader HPV Oligo Mix product violates a QIAGEN Gaithersburg exclusive patent.
“We are pleased that the Appeals Court ruled in QIAGEN’s favor on the antitrust claims from Third Wave/Hologic. This decision validates the earlier ruling by the District Court and confirms that QIAGEN’s leadership in the marketplace for HPV testing is the result of customer trust, extensive clinical validation, and the outstanding performance of our solutions,” said Peer Schatz, chief executive officer of QIAGEN.
“While we are disappointed in the ruling on the claims of one patent within our broad patent estate, we are proud of our strong HPV testing and molecular diagnostic products. We are very pleased that studies continue to confirm the superiority of our products and also take pride in the fact that our customers always could and can continue to feel confident in the full freedom to use our tests. Despite this ruling, we will continue to vigorously defend our unique and broad intellectual property and remain focused on our mission to help save women’s lives through early detection of cancer,” Schatz said.
“QIAGEN offers a complete product portfolio from sample to result for the full range of molecular diagnostics, applied testing, academic research, and pharmaceutical industries” said Schatz. “We are extremely proud of the work we’ve done to provide a superior solution for the early detection of cervical cancer. At the same time, our customers value our complete portfolio of solutions, which leads the molecular diagnostics industry in terms of scope and innovation.”