Study In Prenatal Diagnosis Finds Sequenom CMM's MaterniT21⿢ PLUS Lab-developed Test Accurately Detects Fetal Trisomies In Pregnant Women Carrying Twins Or Triplets

SAN DIEGO, May 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sequenom, Inc. (NASDAQ: SQNM), a life sciences company providing innovative genetic analysis solutions, today announced that a new publication from the large Women & Infants multi-center clinical study on the Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine's (Sequenom CMM) MaterniT21 PLUS laboratory-developed test (LDT) has been published online in the peer-reviewed journal, Prenatal Diagnosis. Along with this week's publication, the Company announces that as of the week ended May 12, 2012, Sequenom CMM has processed more than 10,000 commercial MaterniT21 PLUS test samples in 2012.

The publication addresses the capability of the MaterniT21 PLUS LDT to accurately detect the presence of certain fetal trisomies in pregnant women carrying twins or triplets. The paper will appear in the journal's May issue and the full abstract can be found online at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/pd.3892/abstract.  

"The underlying biology and these positive study data provide evidence that this type of DNA-testing can be reliably employed as a clinical management option for women expecting twins or triplets who are at increased risk for fetal chromosome anomalies," said Allan Bombard, M.D., Laboratory Director for Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine.

The published results are derived from the large international, multi-center study conducted at 27 prenatal diagnostic centers worldwide, with previous publications on trisomy 21 and trisomies 18 and 13 in Genetics in Medicine. Participating sites collected and processed maternal plasma samples from 4,664 pregnant women in the late first and early second trimester who were at increased risk for fetal aneuploidy. Blinded samples from pregnancies with trisomy 21, trisomy 18, and trisomy 13 as well as those with other abnormal karyotypes were tested.

In the same multi-center study, maternal plasma samples were tested from 25 twin and two triplet pregnancies. Of the twin pregnancies, there were no trisomies in 17 pregnancies (known as euploid), trisomy 21 in seven (two cases of trisomy 21 in both fetal twins, five cases of trisomy 21 in one fetal twin only), and trisomy 13 in one (in one fetal twin). There were two triplet pregnancies, neither of which had trisomies.  The MaterniT21 PLUS technology correctly classified the eight twin pregnancies with trisomy 21 or trisomy 13, the 17 twin euploid pregnancies and both triplet euploid pregnancies. 

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