By Connor Hart

A jury awarded Guardant Health $292.5 million in damages related to a false-advertising and unfair-competition lawsuit that the oncology company brought against rival Natera in 2021.

The decision, which includes $175.5 million in punitive damages, represents what Guardant Health on Monday called one of the largest false advertising verdicts in history.

The jury found that Austin, Texas-based Natera engaged in a deliberate campaign to mislead cancer clinicians about Guardant Reveal, the Palo Alto, Calif., company's early-stage colorectal cancer test, in favor of Natera's competing product.

Natera said it disagrees with the jury's decision and will ask the court to overturn it.

"The jury was asked to evaluate comparative advertisements that ran for a brief period in 2021 related to the performance of Guardant's Reveal test," the company said. "This case had nothing to do with the validity or utility of Signatera and certain key pieces of evidence supporting Natera's case were not included in this trial."

Signatera is Natera's competing cancer test to Reveal.

Guardant Health Chief Legal Officer John Saia celebrated the jury's decision. "Today's unanimous verdict holding Natera responsible for engaging in illegal and anticompetitive conduct represents a major victory for colorectal cancer patients who could benefit from our groundbreaking Reveal test," he said.

Write to Connor Hart at connor.hart@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 25, 2024 17:45 ET (22:45 GMT)

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