Sengenics Launches Sequenom’s New Non-Invasive Prenatal VisibiliT Test in Three Additional Territories in Asia

Biopolis, Singapore, September 02, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Sengenics, a leading molecular diagnostics and research company in the region, today announced the launch of VisibiliT, Sequenom's new low-cost, non-invasive, prenatal test. After successfully launching the MaterniT21 prenatal test in November 2012 in Singapore and Malaysia, Sequenom has chosen Sengenics as its exclusive partner to launch its non-invasive prenatal tests in Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei.

The VisibiliT test is tailored for pregnant women who want information about common foetal trisomies, namely Down’s syndrome and Edward’s syndrome. It is of comparable quality and accuracy to the MaterniT21 PLUS test. The test utilizes a maternal blood sample to analyze chromosomal material in cell-free foetal DNA of pregnant women. The VisibiliT test reports a risk score for trisomies 21 and 18, as well as foetal gender.

"Sequenom’s new VisibiliT test will prove to be very useful clinically as many women in Asia opt to have babies later in life. Advanced maternal age is a significant risk factor which can result in an increase in genetic abnormalities in pregnancy. This test will offer peace of mind for the two most common trisomies,” said Dr Arif Anwar, Technical Director of Sengenics.

VisibiliT shows a greater than 99% sensitivity and specificity for trisomies 21 and 18 based on a clinical evaluation study of over 1,000 samples. The test is highly accurate, and has a very low published (0.9%) non-reportable rate, which will avoid a retest, or an unnecessary invasive procedure. This rate is far lower than other non-invasive tests that are available in the market.

“The launch of the VisibiliT test is an important milestone for Sengenics, as we are expanding our non-invasive prenatal testing menu to provide additional choices to better serve the broader community across a total of five countries in the Asia Pacific region,” said Johan Poole-Johnson, Commercial Director of Sengenics.

VisibiliT will be made available through Sengenics’ select panel of partner O&G Clinicians and Hospitals in Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Brunei.

About Sengenics
Sengenics was the 1st company outside the USA to offer microarray and genomics-based diagnostics. The company has now built a portfolio of more than 400 genetic tests for Developmental Delay, Rare Genetic Disorders, Cardiac risk, Thalassaemia and Cancer. The company specialises in leveraging genomics and proteomics technologies for diagnostics and research. Sengenics is a member of the ISCA/ICCG consortiums and has sales offices and labs in 4 countries. The key focus areas for the company are: (1) Genomic Diagnostics - non-invasive pre-natal diagnostics, post-natal diagnostics, cardiac and cancer risk tests, developmental delay diagnostics using next-generation sequencing and microarrays, (2) Proteomics and Genomics based Research Services - protein array based immuno-proteomics and clinical trial immune response monitoring.

About Sequenom CMM
Sequenom Center for Molecular Medicine® (Sequenom CMM), a CAP accredited and CLIA-certified molecular diagnostics laboratory, is developing a broad range of laboratory developed tests with a focus on prenatal and ophthalmic diseases and conditions. These laboratory-developed tests provide beneficial patient management options for obstetricians, geneticists and maternal fetal medicine specialists, and retinal specialists. Sequenom CMM is changing the landscape in genetic disorder diagnostics using proprietary cutting edge technologies.