Noninvasive Down syndrome test
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
San Diego-based genomics firm Sequenom announces new data supporting its noninvasive prenatal Down syndrome lab-developed test, which it expects to be commercially available through licensing partners in the first half of 2009. In preliminary studies of more than 100 clinical plasma specimens tested on the firm's MassArray platform using its SEQureDx technology, the test approached 95% sensitivity and 99% specificity, Sequenom says. The test uses a maternal blood sample and can be done earlier than invasive procedures such as amniocentesis