Affymetrix vs. Illumina
By Kevin Davies
Bio-IT World (online)
Boston (09/16/04)—Affymetrix has filed suit against Illumina, alleging infringement of six patents for various aspects of arrays, software, and hardware awarded between 1996 and 2003.
An official statement released by Affymetrix states that the action followed "many good faith efforts to resolve a patent dispute with Illumina." Affymetrix is no stranger to litigation over microarray intellectual property, having initiated — or been subjected to — numerous lawsuits with the likes of Hyseq, Oxford Gene Technologies, and Incyte since 1997. A co-founder of Illumina, Mark Chee, was among the first scientists hired by Affymetrix.
The Affymetrix statement said: "Affymetrix pioneered high-density arrays. We have filed IP on our discoveries, and we have been hoping that Illumina would take a license on fair terms, as is the norm in the industry. Biotech is based on intellectual property. We respect intellectual property and pay royalties ourselves. Others need to do the same — this is appropriate and fair. Our hope has been that they would recognize our contributions and take a license, but they were unwilling to do so."
Courtroom vs. Marketplace
Illumina president and CEO Jay Flatley responded: "It is disappointing that Affymetrix has chosen to attempt to compete in the courtroom rather than in the marketplace. We believe our next-generation BeadArray-based products provide the highest combination of quality and price performance in the industry and are being well received in the marketplace." Flatley declined to comment further, noting that Illumina would be filing a response in the next few weeks.
Flatley's statement hints that commercial considerations might be at play. Illumina's whole-genome 24K RefSeq BeadChip, which should be available in the next few months, will be affordably priced at about $100 per sample. "The '$100-array' for large-scale expression profiling has been viewed by many as the critical breakthrough price for commercial arrays," says the company's Todd Dickinson.
Illumina has installed high-throughput SNP genotyping BeadLabs at nine centers, including University of Southern California, University of California at Los Angeles, and University of Tokyo. Last month, it announced a collaboration with The Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University to generate more than 25 million mouse genotypes to trace genes for complex diseases including diabetes, obesity, asthma, and anxiety. The demand is also affecting the company's bottom line. Illumina reported a narrower net loss for Q2, down to $3.5 million, with cash assets of $66 million, and it expects to break even early next year. |
