NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Shares in Accelr8 plummeted nearly 30 percent today following news that Becton Dickinson has declined an option to license the company's rapid bacterial diagnostic system.
BD advised the company that it would decline an exclusive license option to the technology associated with an 18-month testing agreement it inked with Accelr8 in April 2008.
The option would have provided an exclusive license to BD to develop and sell a clinical diagnostic system for infectious diseases based on the platform, with Accelr8 retaining rights to all other commercial applications.
Accelr8 said that its technology, called BACcel, met formal testing requirements for identifying a subset of relevant species of bacteria. However, BD prioritizes projects using criteria that are not limited to technical factors.
"We're disappointed by BD's decision not to exercise its exclusive option," Accelr8 President David Howson said in a statement.
"Nevertheless, we made substantial advances and gained strong supporting technical evidence in the project, including integrated testing using patient specimens," Howson added. "We will continue discussions with other prospective collaborators."
Accelr8 said that BACcel is the only technology supported by published data to provide same-day analysis of all significant highly drug-resistant bacteria and their particular resistance mechanisms.
In Friday afternoon trade on the American Stock Exchange, shares of Accelr8 were down 29 percent at $1.80.