NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – OncoCyte said today that it has spun off as a publicly traded company from BioTime and has begun trading on the NYSE MKT under the symbol OCX.
On Dec. 31, BioTime distributed approximately 4.75 million shares of OncoCyte common stock to its shareholders in the ratio of one share of OncoCyte stock for every 20 BioTime common shares owned. There are now 25.4 million shares outstanding of OncoCyte, of which BioTime owns 58.55 percent.
Based in Alameda, California, OncoCyte focuses primarily on developing non-invasive blood- and urine-based diagnostic tests for the early detection of cancer. The company is developing tests for confirmatory diagnosis of lung, bladder, and breast cancer using proprietary sets of gene and protein markers.
In August, OncoCyte said that it had expanded an agreement with the Wistar Institute to develop a diagnostic test for the early detection of lung cancer using gene expression biomarkers discovered at Wistar.
"Becoming a publicly traded company is a key milestone in our development," OncoCyte CEO William Annett said in a statement. "We will continue to leverage the team's diagnostics, commercial, and public company expertise to achieve significant milestones in 2016 with the goal of maximizing shareholder value. These milestones will include preparation for the commercial launch of our first product, which, subject to the successful completion of our R&D program, will be a confirmatory diagnostic test for lung cancer."