NEW YORK — Oncimmune said on Wednesday that it has reacquired the rights to its EarlyCDT autoantibody-based diagnostics platform in China and Hong Kong from Genostics.
In early 2018, Oncimmune licensed the exclusive marketing and distribution rights to Genostics in those territories to its EarlyCDT platform, which includes the EarlyCDT Lung test for lung cancer. That deal included a £10 million ($13.9 million) equity investment by Genostics in Oncimmune.
Under the new agreement, Genostics will return all EarlyCDT-related material, intellectual property, data, and goodwill to Oncimmune, in addition to all royalties owed as of January under the original licensing agreement. Oncimmune will pay an undisclosed fixed amount for the return of the IP and distribution rights, although the majority of the payment will be based on certain future events.
Genostics has also agreed to not sell its remaining shares of Oncimmune — which currently represent nearly 5 percent of the company's issued share capital — until May 6, 2022, except in certain limited situations.
Additional terms were not disclosed.
UK-based Oncimmune said that it is currently exploring options to tap the US capital markets and that the return of the EarlyCDT rights in China and Hong Kong may support this effort.
"We are grateful for the collaboration with Genostics and its parent company, Gene Group Holding," Oncimmune CEO Adam Hill said in a statement. "However, as both companies consider their future on different equity capital markets, the continuing success of the EarlyCDT product portfolio … requires Oncimmune to own the IP and distribution rights."