NEW YORK — Troubled molecular diagnostics firm OpGen said Monday that it has agreed to sell its commercial customer contracts and installed base of Unyvero PCR-based instruments to Singapore's Camtech for $218,000.
The Rockville, Maryland-based company added that it has offered to sell its remaining inventory of Unyvero systems to Camtech for up to an additional $176,000. Until such a sale is completed, OpGen said that it will maintain its commercial operations and continue offering support services for the systems.
"These transactions are consistent with our strategy of preparing OpGen for a potential strategic transaction, including a potential reverse merger of a private company into OpGen," newly appointed OpGen Chairman and CEO David Lazar said in a statement.
OpGen has been struggling to stay afloat recently, defaulting on obligations to repay certain outstanding debts to the European Investment Bank while staving off the delisting of its shares from the Nasdaq. Late last month, Lazar agreed to acquire 3 million shares of OpGen's Series E Convertible Preferred stock for $1.00 per share, giving the company the funds needed to settle the debts.
Meanwhile, the assets of OpGen's European subsidiaries — Curetis, which offered the company's Unyvero system and test cartridges, and Ares Genetics, which developed bacterial genomics and antimicrobial resistance detection technologies — were sold off to Camtech and France's BioMérieux, respectively.
OpGen had been attempting to sell the companies itself or secure funding for their continued operation but was unsuccessful, prompting the subsidiaries to file for bankruptcy in November. OpGen said it was not involved in the Curetis or Ares transactions since they occurred as part of insolvency proceedings.
During early morning trading, shares of OpGen were down almost 9 percent at $.48.