Business
Amarantus Enters into Letter of Intent to Merge Diagnostics Business Unit into Avant Diagnostics
Amarantus Enters into Letter of Intent to Merge Diagnostics Business Unit into Avant Diagnostics.
About this update from Amarantus Bioscience Holdings, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"\n\n SAN FRANCISCO and SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., Jan. 19, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Amarantus Bioscience Holdings, Inc. (OTCQX:AMBS), a biotechnology company developing products in Regenerative Medicine, Neurology and Orphan diseases, today announced that it has entered into a Letter of Intent (the “LOI”) to merge its wholly-owned subsidiary Amarantus Diagnostics into Avant Diagnostics (OTCQB:AVDX). Under the terms of the agreement, upon execution of definitive agreements, Avant shall issue to Amarantus 80 million shares of common stock of Avant Diagnostics, representing approximately 45% of the combined company’s common stock, and 10 million additional shares of common stock upon achievement of certain sales milestones. Amarantus shall have the right to appoint two directors to the Avant Board of Directors, and will assist Avant in bolstering its product development and commercialization resources to accelerate the monetization of the combined company’s product pipeline. The transaction is expected to be finalized in the second quarter of 2016, and is subject to customary closing conditions.\n The merger creates an exciting opportunity to progress highly valuable diagnostic assets in the areas of oncology and neurology. The combined assets have as their common element the potential to provide early and actionable information to physicians and researchers in disease areas that previously yielded results of limited value by harnessing the power of biomarkers based in the immune system. Bringing these assays to market in a standalone diagnostics-focused entity has the potential to improve the practice of medicine by providing new proprietary diagnosis and monitoring tools for oncologists and neurologists: 1, Avant Diagnostics’ OvaDx® immuno-oncology diagnostic assay is a protein-based test, potentially representing a significant improvement in the screening and diagnosis for ovarian cancer. OvaDx offers the possibility to make a clear improvement to the current diagnostic standard that generates over $2B in sales annually by substantially improving the accuracy of diagnosis, and allowing for a more effective therapeutic triaging and intervention strategy. Longer term, the assay could become a much-needed early screening tool for all women as part of a standard screening paradigm. It is estimated that the...