NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Australian molecular diagnostics company Genetic Technologies announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement with unnamed institutional investors in the US to purchase an aggregate of 4.8 million American depositary shares at an average price of $1.25 each.
The company expects the sale will bring in gross proceeds of $6 million, which it plans to use to support its medium-term capital requirements, expand brand awareness and marketing efforts for its BrevaGenplus breast cancer risk test, develop and commercialize a colorectal cancer risk (CRC) assessment test, and for general working capital purposes.
The company said earlier this week that it had exclusively licensed technology for the CRC risk assessment test from the University of Melbourne. According to Genetic Technologies, the licensed technology is similar to the technology underlying BrevaGenplus, which analyzes the expression of breast cancer-associated SNPs to assess a patient's risk of developing the disease. In a study published earlier this year by University of Melbourne researcher Mark Jenkins, who developed the licensed technology, demonstrated that a panel of 45 known susceptibility SNPs could be used to stratify a population of one million patients into clinically useful CRC risk categories, the company said.
Each of the depositary shares being offered represents 150 of Genetic Technologies' ordinary shares. The offering is expected to close on or about Dec. 6. Maxim Group is acting as exclusive placement agent for the offering.
"The capital raised will significantly enhance the company’s long-term future and ability to achieve our overall corporate mission to become a leader in the genomics-focused oncology diagnostics industry while enhancing our pipeline of risk-assessment products," said Genetic Technologies CEO Eutillio Buccilli in a statement.
The firm conducted a similar offering in March 2015, selling 3.3 million American depositary shares, each representing 150 ordinary shares of its stock. That offering raised $14.3 million, which was used to support the commercialization of BrevaGenplus.