NEW YORK — Quest Diagnostics reported in its recent 10K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it paid $200 million in cash for its acquisition of the outreach laboratory business of OhioHealth and $183 million in cash for its acquisition of the outreach laboratory business of University Hospitals. The company originally announced the OhioHealth deal in July and the University Hospitals deal in August.
Laboratory Corporation of America reported in its recent 10K filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has resolved the class action lawsuit, Michael Wiggins and Teri Stevens v. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings. Filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the suit alleged that Labcorp’s website included computer code created by Google that sent information related to the plaintiffs to Google. On Oct. 11, 2024, the court granted Labcorp’s motion to stay the proceedings and compel arbitration. In December, the parties resolved the claims pursuant to a settlement. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Bio-Techne reported in a form filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission this week that an arbitrator required the company to pay approximately $36 million to former President and CEO Chuck Kummeth due to a dispute over stock options. In 2017, Kummeth was granted options to purchase 779,084 shares of common stock, subject to certain vesting requirements that were ultimately satisfied. The options expired on Aug. 9, 2024, but an administrative error caused Bio-Techne's stock plan administration platform to show an incorrect expiration date of Oct. 26, 2024. Kummeth attempted to exercise the options in September and the company notified him that the options had expired. Kummeth then requested an arbitration, saying that he would have exercised the options before the expiration date had he known it was incorrect.
In addition to the $36 million in options, the arbitrator required Bio-Techne to pay approximately $980,000 in interest and about $234,000 in legal fees and costs.
Guardant Health said this week that it has entered a deal with Dak Prescott’s Faith Fight Finish Foundation and Feist-Weiller Cancer Center’s Partners in Wellness to expand access to the company's blood based colorectal cancer screening test called Shield.
The foundation has provided a grant that will allow Partners in Wellness' mobile cancer screening program to offer Guardant's test to the patients it serves across more than 30 communities in northern and central Louisiana regardless of their ability to pay.
Details of the funding amount were not disclosed.
Avacta Therapeutics announced this week that it has sold Launch Diagnostics and its subsidiaries for £12.9 million ($16.7 million) in cash to Duomed Belgium, a subsidiary of Palex Healthcare Group. Completion of the sale is expected by the end of April 2025 and proceeds will be used to further Avacta's PreCision platform. After the divestment, Avecta's cash runway will extend into Q1 2026, it said.
Avacta purchased the diagnostics company in October 2022 for up to £37 million. It is also in discussions to sell its remaining and much smaller Coris BioConcept diagnostics unit.
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.