SÃO PAULO & SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein and Natera, a leading innovator in prenatal genetic testing, today announced a partnership to offer Panorama™, Natera’s non-invasive prenatal test. Panorama currently offers detection of chromosomal abnormalities, including trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 13 (Patau Syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome), monosomy X (Turner syndrome), triploidy and vanishing twins, using only the mother’s blood as early as nine weeks gestation.
“Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein is committed to providing patients with the best medical care possible, and Panorama is not only a best-in-class non-invasive prenatal test but is also capable of detecting abnormalities beyond trisomies with high accuracy,” said Rita Sanchez, M.D., director of maternal fetal medicine at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein in São Paulo. “This test enables us to provide expecting parents with reliable information about the genetics of their baby early on in pregnancy.”
Added Matthew Rabinowitz, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Natera, “Our partnership with a highly respected hospital such as Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein exemplifies Natera’s commitment to delivering the highest quality of genetic tests in the world, based on accuracy, clinical coverage and fast turnaround time.”
Panorama uses a simple blood draw from the mother, examines cfDNA found in maternal blood originating from both mother and fetus, and can be performed within the first trimester of pregnancy without any risk to the fetus. Panorama’s technology analyzes, in a single reaction, 19,488 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are the most informative portions of an individual’s DNA. It utilizes the NATUS [Next-generation Aneuploidy Testing Using SNPs] algorithm, an advanced version of Natera’s proprietary informatics.
Across multiple clinical trials, Panorama has been validated globally for detection of trisomy 21, trisomy 18, trisomy 13, monosomy X, and now triploidy, with a sensitivity of greater than 99 percent for trisomy 21, trisomy 18, trisomy 13, and triploidy, 92 percent for monosomy X, and specificity greater than 99 percent for all syndromes tested. Panorama’s clinical validation data has been reported in multiple peer-reviewed publications including the May 2013 article in Prenatal Diagnosis, authored by Professor Nicolaides, which was the first demonstration of Panorama’s ability to detect triploidy. In October 2013 additional validation data was published in Fetal Diagnosis and Therapy, also authored by Professor Nicolaides, showing Panorama was able to differentiate with high accuracy between triploid and euploid cases in 56 blinded samples.
About Sociedade Beneficente Israelita Brasileira Albert Einstein (SBIBAE)
The SBIBAE operates in three integrated and equally important fronts: health care, social responsibility and the generation and dissemination of knowledge. The activities of health care are concentrated in the Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein and in the area of preventive and diagnostic medicine, which contribute to the sustainability of social responsibility, teaching and research. The Instituto Israelita Albert Einstein de Responsabilidade Social (IIRS) works in its own programs or in conjunction with public health system to help meet the health care needs, or technological skills of the community. The research and education activities are housed in the Instituto Israelita de Ensino e Pesquisa (IIEP) and confer innovation to other areas of SBIBAE.
About Natera
Natera is a leading genetic testing company that has developed a proprietary bioinformatics-based technology (NATUS) to deliver accurate and comprehensive high-throughput testing for reproductive indications from tiny quantities of DNA. Natera operates a CLIA-certified laboratory in San Carlos, Calif., providing a host of preconception and prenatal genetic testing services. Test offerings include pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to identify chromosomal anomalies or inherited genetic conditions in embryos generated during an IVF cycle; products-of-conception testing following miscarriage to rapidly and extensively analyze fetal chromosomes in order to understand the cause of the pregnancy loss; non-invasive prenatal testing to determine paternity; carrier screening tests to detect whether parents carry genetic variations that may result in disease in the child; and Panorama, a safe, simple test for pregnant women that identifies the most common chromosomal anomalies in a fetus as early as nine weeks. Natera's PreNATUS clinical trial for non-invasive screening of fetal chromosomal anomalies is funded by the NIH and is being conducted by the leaders in maternal-fetal medicine in the United States. The company was recently recognized for its work to advance prenatal care through its selection by the World Economic Forum as a 2014 Technology Pioneer. For more information, visit www.natera.com.
