Oncimmune acquires Protagen Diagnostics in £4.11m deal

(Sharecast News) - Oncimmune Holdings has acquired Protagen Diagnostics for a total consideration of up to £4.11m, it announced on Tuesday, to be paid by the allotment of up to 2,635,910 Oncimmune ordinary shares at 156p each 0 a premium of 71% to the closing mid-market price on 18 March.The AIM-traded firm said Protagen had an established revenue-generating business, developing precision medicine and patient stratification tools for leading pharmaceutical multinationals in both immuno-oncology and autoimmune disease.It said those tools supported drug development, improved treatment strategies and patient management.Protagen's proprietary high throughput 'SeroTag' biomarker engine, which was used to discover and validate novel biomarkers, and 'NavigAID' arrays for disease stratification and response prediction, offered powerful complementary tools to Oncimmune's proprietary 'EarlyCDT' product platform, the board explained.The acquisition "further unlocked" the latent potential of tumour-related antibodies in detecting disease and directing therapy, it added.Oncimmune said the combination of its expertise in product design and development, its existing library of known immunogenic proteins and US-based CLIA laboratory, with Protagen's biomarker discovery capabilities, would offer the group a "highly differentiated" end-to-end proposition in the delivery of complementary in vitro diagnostics.QIAGEN had been involved with Protagen as an investor in the past, and would continue to be an investor in Oncimmune following the transaction, the board confirmed."The acquisition of Protagen will accelerate Oncimmune's product discovery process, will grow our library of known and novel immunogenic proteins, and will underpin the group's ability to deliver value through the development of complementary diagnostics, a key component of our three-year forward strategy," said Oncimmune chief executive officer Dr Adam Hill."Protagen's biomarker discovery expertise and high throughput antigen screening technology are all highly synergistic to Oncimmune's current capabilities."I look forward to working with our new colleagues to grow our company."