Jury Socks Natera with $44.9 Million False Advertising Verdict

Case: CareDx has prevailed in its long-running dispute with Natera over false advertising of blood tests assessing the risk of patient rejection of a transplanted kidney. CareDx claimed that Natera and its executives deliberately and recklessly overstated the benefits of its Prospera cfDNA test by likening it to CareDx’s AlloSure. After a bitter trial, a Delaware federal jury agreed with CareDx and awarded it $23.7 million in punitive and $21.2 million in compensatory damages. [CareDx, Inc. v. Natera, Inc., C.A. No. 19-cv-662-CFC-CJB]. Significance: CareDx didn’t exactly emerge unscathed, either. The jury also concluded that CareDx engaged in its own false advertising by issuing a press release falsely claiming that an independent study found AlloSure faster and more accurate than a competing product and again by falsely representing a study about AlloSure as being an independent study.