NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Genoptix has acquired the rights to market and distribute all of Rosetta Genomics' testing services worldwide, the companies announced today.
The deal comes as the firms try — for the second time — to close a merger that had previously failed to gain necessary approval from Rosetta shareholders.
Under the new agreement, Genoptix is the exclusive US distributor of Rosetta's testing services, including its flagship Reveal assay for the classification of indeterminate thyroid nodules, as well as a nonexclusive distributor of the services elsewhere in the world. Rosetta will process test samples in its CLIA lab and may still offer all the services itself globally.
Rosetta will pay Genoptix a percentage of sales generated from samples it processes as a direct result of Genoptix's selling efforts. Additional terms were not disclosed.
"This marketing and distribution agreement will help ensure that the Reveal test and other tests will be supported commercially, uninterrupted, through the completion of the merger, hopefully through a positive shareholder vote or via alternate scenarios," Genoptix President and CEO Joseph Limber said in a statement.
In December, Genoptix agreed to acquire Rosetta for $10 million in cash, but that deal was scuttled a couple of months later after failing to receive enough Rosetta shareholder support. In late February, the companies announced another all-cash merger agreement, this time valuing Rosetta at $9 million. Rosetta shareholders will vote on the latest merger proposal on April 6.
During early morning trading on the Nasdaq, shares of Rosetta were down 1 percent at $.43.