Oncimmune Acquires Dedicated Commercial Testing Facility for EarlyCDT-Lung from Health Diagnostic Laboratory, Inc

NOTTINGHAM, England, September 24, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Oncimmune, a leader in early cancer detection, today announces the purchase of substantially all of the assets of Central Medical Laboratory ("CML") from Health Diagnostic Laboratory, Inc ("HDL").

This acquisition again provides Oncimmune with its own CLIA-testing facility. Ownership of its own lab will help to provide a strong platform for growth, including support for increasing sales of EarlyCDT®-Lung and for the addition of new EarlyCDT tests for the early detection of cancer. Oncimmune has assumed third party contracts necessary for ongoing business operations and has agreed to take on all existing CML employees.

HDL originally acquired the CML laboratory, located in De Soto, Kansas, from Oncimmune in October 2013 and since then has operated it as a dedicated commercial testing facility for the EarlyCDT-Lung test on a continuous basis.

The original agreement, whereby Oncimmune received a substantial purchase price and guaranteed minimum royalty payments for tests sold exclusively by HDL in the US, has now been terminated and instead Oncimmune has an arrangement in place both with Innovative Diagnostic Laboratory ("IDL") (previously a subsidiary of HDL) and HDL for non-exclusive distribution of EarlyCDT-Lung in the US and is exploring further US distribution deals. The lab will also continue to be the central testing facility for all EarlyCDT-Lung tests sold worldwide.

The new agreement also provides a net cash benefit of $2.3m to Oncimmune.

Geoffrey Hamilton-Fairley, CEO of Oncimmune Limited said: "Our original agreement with HDL provided Oncimmune with significant funds through the sale of the facility and guaranteed royalties. We now have the opportunity to re-acquire the facility at a time at which we are poised for growth as we realise the potential of our pioneering autoantibody approach to cancer detection."

EarlyCDT-Lung is being used in the world's largest randomised trial using a biomarker ever conducted for the early detection of lung cancer; the National Health Service (NHS) Scotland ECLS study of more than 10,000 high-risk smokers. Early results showing a cancer detection rate of 81%, better than the stated test performance, were recently presented at the 16th World Conference on Lung Cancer.

About Oncimmune 

Oncimmune is an industry leader in early cancer detection. The company has pioneered the development of autoantibody assay technologies that have the potential to allow earlier cancer detection than other methods and be applied to a very wide range of solid tumour types. The Company's proprietary EarlyCDT® technology platform was launched in 2009 and EarlyCDT®-Lung is available through physicians in the US and also privately in the UK and other regions. EarlyCDT® tests for liver and ovarian cancer are in final validation.

Oncimmune is headquartered in Nottingham, United Kingdom with testing facilities in the US.

For more information: http://www.oncimmune.com

Media Contacts: 

UK/Europe:
Chris Gardner, Mary-Jane Elliott, Matthew Neal, Lindsey Neville
Consilium Strategic Communications
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+44(0)20-3709-5813

SOURCE Oncimmune