NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Response Genetics today said that it has signed definitive agreements with unnamed institutional investors for the sale of 932,805 shares of the firm's common stock through a registered direct offering.
The Los Angeles-based molecular diagnostics firm is selling the shares at $2.05 each, the stock's closing price on Thursday, and expects to raise gross proceeds of $1.9 million through the offering. It said it anticipates the offering will close on or around Sept. 25.
Response Genetics expects to use the funds to speed up the integration of the recently acquired Tissue of Origin test into its portfolio.
The firm announced in late August that it had acquired assets of Pathwork Diagnostics, including its Tissue of Origin test, a US Food and Drug Administration-cleared and Medicare-reimbursed test for diagnosing metastatic, poorly differentiated, and undifferentiated cancer.
"This additional capital is primarily intended to facilitate a focused and expedited integration of this portfolio-enhancing product," Thomas Bologna, chairman and CEO of Response Genetics, said in a statement. "In conjunction with this effort, we are excited to begin immediate construction of additional laboratory space in our Los Angeles facility."
Bologna added that the firm expects to begin offering the Tissue of Origin test in the first quarter of 2014.