NEW DATA SUPPORTS A NON-INVASIVE APPROACH TO ROUTINE PRENATAL GENETIC TESTING

FETAL NUCLEIC ACID TECHNOLOGY OFFERS POTENTIAL ALTERNATIVE TO AMNIOCENTESIS

Story Summary:

Research studies demonstrating the viability of an approach to routinely detect the presence of fetal DNA in a mother’s blood to accurately diagnose or rule out genetic defects -- as early as the first trimester -- was presented at the 27th Annual Meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine being held in San Francisco. This future diagnostic technology, currently under development at Sequenom, Inc. (Nasdaq: SQNM), shows promise that a universal alternative to such invasive genetic screening procedures as amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling, may be available in the future.

These implications are important to women with high-risk pregnancies, in that this future non-invasive screening technique will have significant benefit to all expectant mothers, especially on the heels of new guidelines endorsed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) that call for risk assessment of all pregnancies for fetal chromosomal abnormalities.

Through technology licensing agreements with clinical laboratories, Sequenom expects a non-invasive application of its technology for fetal Rhesus D (RhD) typing to become available in these laboratories beginning in the first half of 2007. Rhesus disease can occur when the blood of the expectant mother is incompatible with her unborn child.

For more, visit: www.fetalDNAtesting.com

Soundbites

Kenneth J. Moise, Jr. MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Division of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine
Leslie Williamson, 38 years of age, RhD negative mother
Harry Stylli, PhD, MBA, President and CEO, Sequenom