NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Med BioGene today said that it has accepted an improved offer from Precision Therapeutics to license exclusive rights to Med BioGene's LungExpress Dx.
The new agreement, which is an improved offer on a licensing agreement inked between the two firms nearly a month ago, would provide Precision with exclusive global rights to LungExpress Dx. The new agreement also comes less than a week after Signal Genetics made an improved offer to gain rights to the test.
LungExpress Dx is a gene expression-based test that has been developed to identify patients with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer who, following surgical removal of their tumor, are at higher and lower risks of mortality.
The technology is at the center of a lawsuit filed last month by Signal Genetics accusing Vancouver, British Columbia-based Med BioGene with fraud and Pittsburgh-based Precision Therapeutics with tortious interference. Signal said that it had been negotiating a licensing agreement for LungExpress Dx with Med BioGene before the Canadian firm licensed rights to Precision.
Under the deal announced today, Precision would pay Med BioGene $2.3 million in license fees and research reimbursement within 120 days of closing the deal. That represents an increase over the previous agreement, under which Precision had agreed to pay Med BioGene $1.6 million, and matches the upfront payment offered by Signal Genetics. Precision also upped the royalty rate it would pay Med BioGene by half a percent.
The agreement with Precision requires the approval of Med BioGene's shareholders, which will vote on the deal, among other issues, at a special shareholders' meeting on April 12.