NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Signal Genetics has inked agreements to commercialize DiagnoCure's colorectal cancer test, acquire its CLIA service laboratory, and develop additional genomic cancer tests, the two companies announced today.
Under the terms of the deal, Signal will pay DiagnoCure $10.8 million over five years for the rights to the Quebec City-based firm's Previstage GCC Colorectal Cancer Staging Test and for its CLIA laboratory. The payments will be broken into a $5.7 million upfront payment for the lab acquisition and a minimum $5.1 million in annual installments and royalty payments during the first five years of the licensing agreement.
Signal, based in New York City, also will pay DiagnoCure $2.5 million under an R&D agreement for further development of certain genomic tests. In total, the collaboration between the two firms is valued at $13.3 million over five years, they said. All payments will be in cash.
In a statement, Signal Genetics CEO Joe Hernandez said, "Previstage GCC has been shown to offer key clinical information to improve colon cancer management and has an estimated global market potential of over $400 million." He added that Signal will use its new subsidiary CC Health to expand its sales force and marketing partnerships to sell the test nationwide.
Previstage is a molecular test for the staging of colorectal cancer patients. Minute quantities of GCC messenger RNA are amplified to magnify the presence of cancer cells, offering physicians a significantly more sensitive method than the standard method of identifying metastasis in the lymph nodes by microscopic examination, DiagnoCure said on its website.
Yves Fradet, president and CMO of DiagnoCure, said that the new funds will "strengthen DiagnoCure's financial base, and allow us to build on our core expertise in developing clinically relevant and robust genomic tests in cancer, in particular lung cancer."