NEW YORK – Exact Sciences said this week it completed its $2.8 billion acquisition of Genomic Health.
Separately, Exact Sciences said that the US Food and Drug Administration granted breakthrough device designation to the company's hepatocellular carcinoma test. A new study of 443 patients by the company and collaborators showed 80 percent sensitivity at 90 percent specificity with a combination of six blood-based biomarkers for the cancer, which is the most common type of liver cancer. At early-stage HCC, the study showed 71 percent sensitivity and 90 percent specificity, Exact Sciences said.
Thermo Fisher Scientific this week declared a quarterly cash dividend of $.19 per share, to be paid on Jan. 15, 2020, to shareholders of record as of Dec. 17, 2019. The company's board also authorized the repurchase of $2.5 billion of shares of common stock on the open market or in negotiated transactions. The authorization has no expiration date and replaces the company's existing repurchase authorization, of which $500 million was remaining.
Cadex Genomics said this week that it has opened a high-complexity molecular diagnostics laboratory at the University of New Orleans Advanced Materials Research Institute, where it will create 50 new jobs.
Oncimmune said this week it has drawn down the second tranche of its €8.5 million ($9.5 million) credit facility with IPF Management. The second tranche of €3.5 million was drawn on Oct. 18. The firm drew down an initial tranche of €5.0 million in September.
Celcuity this week said that its net loss third quarter increased to $2 million, or $0.19 per share, from a net loss of $1.87 million, or $0.18 per share, a year ago. The Minneapolis-based firm reported no revenues.
Its Q3 R&D costs rose 6 percent year over year to $1.7 million from $1.6 million, while its general and administrative costs were relatively flat year over year at $379,718 compared to $376,796 in Q3 2018.
At the end of Q3, Celcuity had cash, cash equivalents, and investments of $20.4 million.
The firm's Chairman and CEO Brian Sullivan said in a statement that in Q3 it "continued to make progress advancing development of new CELx tests to diagnose patients with new cancer sub-types and establishing collaborations with pharmaceutical companies." Its CELx platform uses a patient's living tumor cells to identify abnormal cellular activity driving the patient's cancer and the most appropriate therapy.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on 360Dx.