NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The US bankruptcy court in charge of Helicos BioSciences' Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization has approved deals for the company to license its intellectual property to Illumina, Life Technologies, Fluidigm, and Complete Genomics.
The court has approved IP licensing deals in which Illumina would pay $1.8 million to Helicos; Life Tech would pay Helicos $750,000; and Fluidigm would pay the company $1 million, Helicos said recently in court documents.
Helicos had petitioned the court for approval of the deals last month.
The court also granted Helicos' motion to allow a deal in which Complete Genomics, a wholly owned subsidiary of BGI, would pay $300,000 to Helicos to sublicense IP owned by Arizona Science and Technology Enterprises. Helicos filed its motion related to that deal late last month.
Helicos also said that it and Roche are currently in talks to resolve a dispute involving a sublicensing deal.
Helicos and Roche had agreed to terms under which Helicos would pay Roche $50,000 in return for the permission to sublicense Roche's IP to Illumina, Life Tech, and Fluidigm. Helicos, however, said last month that although an oral agreement had been reached with Roche, "delays in documenting the agreement have called into question whether Roche remains willing to proceed," Helicos.
In asking the court in May to approve its deals with Illumina, Life Tech, and Fluidigm, Helicos also had asked it allow the company to sublicense Roche's IP in the event that Roche does not execute the settlement deal with Helicos. It also asked the court to reduce the amount it would pay Roche to a $10,000 royalty rather than the original $50,000.
Helicos and Roche are in negotiations to reach a "comprehensive resolution," in the dispute, according to a court document.