GENEVA & SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Unilabs, a leading diagnostics company in Europe, and Natera, a leading innovator in prenatal genetic testing, announced today that Unilabs will distribute Nateras non-invasive prenatal screening test, Panorama, across its wide network in Switzerland and Scandinavia. Panorama was launched in March 2013 for the detection of trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome) and select sex chromosome abnormalities, such as monosomy X (Turners syndrome).

Panorama marks a significant advance in the field of prenatal testing as it has shown remarkable sensitivity and specificity across multiple aneuploidies, said Thomas Brinkmann, M.D., group chief medical officer of Unilabs. By providing physicians and expectant mothers with accurate information in a non-invasive test, Panorama contributes to our goal of ensuring that expectant mothers receive accurate information to guide their doctors clinical decisions.

Unilabs provides a comprehensive portfolio of diagnostic services in 11 countries in Europe. It has diagnostic contracts with companies specializing in areas such as laboratory medicine, medical imaging, reproductive medicine and drug development services.

We are excited to work with a world-class partner in the distribution of Panorama to Switzerland and other parts of Europe, said Matthew Rabinowitz, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Natera. Unilabs extensive healthcare network will enable more women and physicians to gain access to Nateras best-in-class test and the reliable information that it provides early in pregnancy.

Panorama uses a simple blood draw from the mother, examines cell-free DNA found in maternal blood originating from both mother and fetus, and can be performed within the first trimester of pregnancy, as early as nine weeks, without any risk to the fetus. Panoramas technology analyzes, in a single reaction, 19,500 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are the most informative portions of an individuals DNA. It utilizes the NATUS [Next-generation Aneuploidy Testing Using SNPs] algorithm, an advanced version of Nateras proprietary informatics.

Across multiple clinical trials, Panorama has been validated globally for trisomy 21, trisomy 18, trisomy 13 and monosomy X with a sensitivity of greater than 99% for trisomy 21, trisomy 18 and trisomy 13, 92% for monosomy X, and no false positives for all syndromes tested. Panoramas clinical validation data was presented at the annual Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine Meeting on Feb. 15, 2013. The most recent independently-led blinded study was published in May 2013 in Prenatal Diagnosis from author K.H. Nicolaides and The Fetal Medicine Foundation. Panorama is currently being evaluated in several other clinical trials for the detection of other genetic disorders, including XXY, XYY, XXX and triploidy.

About Unilabs

Unilabs is a leading diagnostic services company. We operate more than 120 laboratories and 44 radiology units in Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Our customers are public and private healthcare providers, county councils, the general public, insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry and CROs. We supply medical laboratory services within: laboratory medicine, genetic testing, medical imaging, cellular pathology, reproductive medicine, drug development services and clinical trials. For more information please visit http://www.unilabs.com.

About Natera

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Unilabs and Natera Initiate Partnership for Distribution of Non-Invasive Prenatal Test, Panorama™, in Switzerland ...

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