A U.S.-based diagnostics company is expanding its presence in lung cancer with the acquisition of assets from a firm based in the U.K.
Boulder, Colorado-based Biodesix said Friday that it would buy Nottingham, U.K.-based Oncimmune’s U.S. operations, including a CLIA lab in De Soto, Kansas, and its incidental pulmonary nodule malignancy test. In particular, the lab provides the EarlyCDT Lung test in the U.S.
The agreement, which includes milestone payments from Biodesix to Oncimmune, is valued at up to $28 million over the next five years, the companies said. Shares of Oncimmune, which trade on the London Stock Exchange, were up more than 13 percent Friday. Biodesix is a privately held company.
Under the agreement, from Friday through Nov. 1, Oncimmune will continue its current activities in the U.S., in exchange for a monthly payment from Biodesix, thereby lowering its monthly cash burn. Biodesix will afterward acquire the assets of Oncimmune’s operations in the U.S. for a fixed-cash, lump sum and take on their operating costs. Thus, from Nov. 1 onward, Biodesix will be responsible for commercialization of EarlyCDT Lung and make increasing volume-based payments for its current intended use in lung nodule patients.
In addition, for a further lump sum cash payment, Biodesix will also have the opportunity to take advantage of the EarlyCDT Lung potential as a screening indication in the U.S. Oncimmune said its board sees market potential in the screening indication, in addition to the current lung nodule application. Its view is based on an announcement from June 4 that the Early Cancer Detection Test- Lung Caner Scotland Study had met its primary endpoint.
Last year, Biodesix announced the acquisition of Seattle-based Integrated Diagnostics, also known as Indi, under undisclosed financial terms. Indi’s lead product is Xpresys Lung, a noninvasive, blood-based test that measures blood proteins to identify lung nodules with a high probability of being benign.
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