NEW YORK – Nautilus Biotechnology reported in a recent filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it has agreed to settle its suit against Standard BioTools and the California Institute of Technology. Nautilus filed suit against Standard BioTools and CalTech in US District Court for the Northern District of California in 2023 seeking declaratory judgment that its technology does not infringe intellectual property of Standard BioTools and CalTech. On Nov. 19, 2024, the three parties agreed to dismiss the suit and settle any and all claims related to it.
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 its Shield blood-based colorectal cancer screening test. The foundation has provided a grant that will allow Partners in Wellness to offer Guardant's test as part of its mobile cancer screening program to patients it serves across more than 30 communities in northern and central Louisiana, regardless of their ability to pay. Details about the funding amount were not disclosed.
VolitionRx said this week that its Nu.Q Discover epigenetic profiling assays would be used to measure disease progression and treatment response in a longitudinal PhaseI/IIb study sponsored by “a leading pharmaceutical company.” The company said that its assays were selected following a successful pilot study, adding that it expects the study to generate “significant revenue” and that it is discussing further projects.
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.
908 Devices announced this week the sale of its desktop bioprocessing assets, which include instruments offered as part of its proteomics business, to Repligen for $70 million. The company also reported that its fourth quarter 2024 revenues climbed 31 percent year over year to $18.8 million from $14.4 million. Its Q4 net loss rose to $19.4 million, or $.56 per share, from $7.4 million, or $.23 per share, in the year-ago quarter. For full-year 2024, the company's revenues climbed 19 percent to $59.6 million from $50.2 million in 2023. Its 2024 net loss climbed to $72.2 million, or $2.12 per share, from a net loss of $36.4 million, or $1.13 per share, the year before. The rise in net loss was largely driven by goodwill impairment charges. 908 finished the year with cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities of $69.6 million. The Boston-based company also
Dovetail Genomics said this week that it has added Spain's Centro Nacional de Análisis Genómico (CNAG) to its certified service provider program. CNAG will provide the Dovetail Omni-C assay as a service to academic, translational, and clinical researchers, as well as biopharma and contract research organizations.
Co-Diagnostics said this week that a securities class action lawsuit against the company was dismissed by the court on March 4. The lawsuit had been filed in 2020 by Gelt Trading against Co-Diagnostics and several of its current and former directors and officers, accusing them of issuing a false or misleading press release in 2020 regarding the firm’s Logix Smart Covid-19 real-time RT-PCR test.
In Brief This Week is a selection of news items that may be of interest to our readers but had not previously appeared on GenomeWeb.