Amarantus Bioscience Holdings, which is focused on developing neurologics, regenerative medicine and ophthalmic therapies, reacquired the rights Avant Diagnostics’ LymPro test for Alzheimer’s. It also picked up the rights to Avant’s MSPrecise and NuroPro diagnostic tests.
Under the agreement, Amarantus agreed to cancel about $722,500 Avant owes Amarantus and to issue 1 million shares of Amarantus common stock to Avant in return for Avant issuing Amarantus an additional 30.1 million common shares of its stock.
Amarantus said it intends to assign the diagnostic assets picked up in the deal to a new subsidiary.
"We believe there is an opportunity to move the neurology assets via a focused subsidiary and key additions to management with experience to take it forward,” Gerald Commissiong, president and CEO of Amarantus, said in a statement.
In 2015, Amarantus struck a deal with Anavex Life Sciences to provide biomarker test services for the company's Alzheimer's drug candidates. Under that agreement, Amarantus used the LymPro test to see how well Anavex's Anavex 2-73 and Anavex Plus increase the expression of a CD69 biomarker in patients' peripheral blood lymphocytes.