Fenwick Represents Veracyte in Exclusive License Agreement with Yale

Fenwick & West represented Veracyte, Inc. (Nasdaq: VCYT), a pioneering genomic diagnostics company, in its exclusive license agreement with Yale University (Yale) to advance the first genomic test for predicting disease progression in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). Under the agreement, Veracyte receives rights to a 52-gene signature developed by Yale researchers for use on the nCounter FLEX Analysis System—Veracyte’s exclusively licensed diagnostics platform. As part of a comprehensive offering to aid in the diagnosis and treatment of patents with IPF, Veracyte plants to make the non-invasive, blood-based test available as a complement to its Envisia Genomic Classifier.

Veracyte and Yale have also established a research agreement with Dr. Naftali Kaminski—chief of the Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Yale’s School of Medicine—who along with collaborators developed the 52-signature in peripheral blood, which is shown to predict rapid disease progression among patients with IPF. The research agreement is aimed at further illuminating the genomic underpinning of interstitial lung diseases (ILDs), with the potential to further inform diagnosis and treatment decisions for patients with ILDs, including IPF. View Veracyte’s announcement to learn more about the company’s collaboration with Yale and Dr. Kaminski’s lab.​

The Fenwick transaction team was led by technology transactions partner Jake Handy.