Natera is facing multiple federal class action lawsuits over a June data breach at Baylor Genetics, a partner clinical lab, even though Natera says its own systems were not accessed.
In August, a customer of Natera’s Empower hereditary cancer testing sued both Natera and Baylor Genetics in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging negligence, breach of implied contract, unjust enrichment, and violation of the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act.
In October, a customer of the Vistara prenatal screen filed suit in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas, alleging negligence, breach of implied contract, and unjust enrichment as well as a violation of New York State laws about security and privacy measures for personal information.
According to disclosures to the US Department of Health and Human Services, over 2.8 million people were affected by the data breach, which took place between June 11 and June 17, 2026. How many were Natera customers isn’t clear; Natera did not address a question about its patients’ exposure to the breach, but in an email a company spokesperson clarified that Natera’s systems were not accessed in the security breach. The company declined to comment further citing the pending litigation.
Patient information involved potentially included sensitive information such as date of birth, medical testing information, laboratory test results, and health insurance information. In a statement posted to its website, Baylor Genetics disclosed that “for a very limited subset” of patients’ Social Security numbers may have also been compromised. Current and former Baylor Genetics employees were also affected by the breach.
In Natera’s quarterly filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said that in September it “tendered the defense of both actions to Baylor and demanded indemnification under the parties’ Laboratory Services Agreement,” which would shift costs to Baylor if accepted.
Baylor said it has since secured the affected systems and taken other steps to investigate the breach. “At this time, Baylor Genetics is not aware of any confirmed misuse of personal information or reports of identity theft or fraud related to this incident,” the company statement said.
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Ion Genomics News
Starting Nov. 11, I’ll be at the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) meeting in Seattle. I’ll try to experiment with some up-to-the-minute coverage on the Substack and other ways to make you feel like you’re there.
If you’ll also be there, please reach out or at least say “hello” if you see me!
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In a Nov. 4 statement, MyOme said it will integrate the methylation signatures into its clinical, long-read sequencing-based rare disease testing. SickKids researcher Rosanna Weksberg has developed more than 60 methylation signatures focused on neurodevelopmental disorders. However, the number of total licensed signatures, along with other financial details, was not disclosed.
The partnership includes co-development of additional methylation signatures and MyOme will validate an initial set of signatures.
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