NEW YORK – HalioDx announced this week its participation in the Oncobiome consortium. The project, which is funded with €15 million ($16.4 million), aims to discover the relationship between intestinal microbial signatures and treatments for breast, colon, lung, and skin cancers in terms of response, resistance, and toxicity.
Marseille, France-based HalioDx said it will apply its R&D expertise and Immunoscore solutions with other biomarkers to the project. The company will analyze samples from 1,000 patients originating from prospective and retrospective studies, and it will industrialize certain intestinal microbial signatures as clinical research tools for subsequent validation and diagnostic test development.
OncoCyte said Tuesday that it had closed its previously announced initial investment in a 25 percent preferred stock interest in Razor Genomics, acquiring the rights to commercialize Razor's CLIA-validated lung cancer treatment stratification test, which identifies early-stage lung cancer patients at high risk for recurrence.
At closing, OncoCyte said it made a cash payment of $10 million for the initial 25 percent equity interest in the form of newly created preferred stock. OncoCyte also made a $1 million milestone payment to Razor's parent company in reflection of the firm's recent draft local coverage decision from CMS contractor Palmetto GBA.
Upon the achievement of additional milestones, Razor will receive additional payments, and OncoCyte has a continuing option to acquire 100 percent of the company's outstanding shares for $10 million in cash and $5 million of common stock, subject to the satisfaction of certain contractual conditions. OncoCyte is required to go through with the full acquisition if a certain trial milestone is met.
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