Hologic picks up DiagnoCure PCA3 prostate marker asssets for $4.7m

DiagnoCure said last week it sold its PCA3 prostate cancer biomarker assets to Hologic‘s (NSDQ:HOLX) subsidiary Gen-Probe (NSDQ:GPRO) for $4.7 million (CAD $6.5 million).

The purchase is slated to include $4 million (CAD $5.5 million) in cash and the repurchase of 4.9 million series A convertible preferred shares of DiagnoCure held by Gen-Probe, valued at $744,229 (CAD $1 million).

“The proposed transaction is a beneficial 1st step in improving shareholder value while additionally providing an immediate liquidity opportunity for current shareholders. Moreover, we are confident that the remaining assets held by the Corporation provide business opportunities for the right partners,” DiagnoCure chair Dr. Jacques Simoneau said in prepared remarks.

As part of the deal, Gen-Probe will obtain the right of 1st refusal to license the multi-marker prostate cancer test in in vitro diagnostics, according to DiagnoCure.

“We believe in the clinical value of the corporation’s Previstage GCC assay for improving the staging of colon cancer and in the newly developed multi-marker prostate cancer assay that should provide an important tool to clinicians for early identification of aggressive prostate cancers, leading to disease management decisions that could improve prognosis,” DiagnoCure prez Dr. Yves Fradet said in a press release.

DiagnoCure said the share repurchasing will cancel all of the preferred shares issued by the company so far, and will allow “additional 3rd-party business arrangements that could be pursued by Diagnocure” in relation to other assets the company holds.

DiagnoCure hopes to close the deal by the end of February 2016.

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