Natera agrees to $8.25 million class settlement over prenatal test false positives

A federal court in Oakland sanctioned an $8.25 million settlement for a class of users of Natera’s noninvasive prenatal screening products, Panorama and Vasistera, after claims the company marketed them as reliable despite a high false-positive rate for rare conditions. The class includes all U.S. purchasers during a period beginning Feb. 17, 2016 in Ohio and Feb. 17, 2018 elsewhere, and claimants can recover up to 10 % of out-of-pocket costs if they provide proof of purchase.

Judge Jon Tigar, appointed by Barack Obama, found the agreement fair and reasonable, granting roughly $2.4 million to attorneys and $7,500 to each of eight class representatives. Natera will update its website to clarify that its tests are screening tools and that abnormal results must be confirmed with diagnostic procedures such as amniocentesis. The settlement follows a 2022 New York Times exposé and a parallel suit against Myriad Genetics. Notification problems were fixed in March, and the claim deadline was extended to July after most class members were reached.