Illumina Inc, facing a hostile takeover bid by Swiss drugmaker Roche Holding AG, was sued by Columbia University on Monday for alleged infringement of five patents related to DNA sequencing.According to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Delaware, Illumina commercialized its so-called next-generation sequencing (NGS) products despite knowing about the patents, which were obtained between 2009 and 2012 and assigned to Columbia.The university said its patents cover NGS technologies that allow rapid and precise DNA sequencing. It said the technologies are particularly important in personalized medicine, in which individuals' genomic DNA sequence information is used as a basis to provide health care.Illumina makes machines that decode a person's entire genome. Representatives of the company did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Columbia also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Illumina, Inc. (Illumina) is a developer and manufacturer of life science tools and integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and function. Shares of ILMN fell by 0.95% or $-0.48/share to $49.98. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $25.57 and as high as $79.40. On average, 3192010 shares of ILMN exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 326773.
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