NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Rosetta Genomics has terminated a licensing deal with Chinese diagnostic firm Avatao Biotech, the Israeli molecular diagnostic firm disclosed in a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.
Rosetta had previously said that it delivered notice to Avatao of its decision to terminate the deal reached in October. Avatao had not made payments to Rosetta and failed to "use commercially reasonable efforts" to bring products covered by the deal to market, Rosetta said in its SEC document.
Avatao had 30 days, or until last week, to pay the amounts due to Rosetta. On July 12, after Avatao still had not made its payments, Rosetta terminated the deal. Avatao must transfer back to Rosetta ownership of any registered patents or patent application and any property which it received from Rosetta.
The deal between the two companies gave Avatao exclusive rights to market Rosetta's miRview mets and miRview mets2 diagnostic tests in China. Avatao also had the rights to market an additional Rosetta product in China, to be chosen within one year. In addition to China, the deal covered Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
Avatao is supported by Kunshan microRNA Institute, which focuses on microRNA technologies.