SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Shares of Catalist-listed Biolidics shot up on Thursday (July 9) after the company announced a partnership with China's LC-Bio to develop cancer-diagnostic solutions.
The company's shares closed up 10 cents or 32.3 per cent to 41 cents, with 61.6 million shares changing hands.
Under its five-year agreement with LC-Bio, Biolidics will be LC-Bio's exclusive partner in China for the development of cancer-diagnostics solutions at the latter's laboratory in Hangzhou, the Singapore company announced in an exchange filing on Wednesday night.
Biolidics will provide all necessary materials and relevant consumables required by the project, while LC-Bio will provide the qualified medical laboratories and space required.
At end-June 2020, Biolidics shares sank 22 per cent after the firm announced that it mutually agreed with Aytu BioScience to terminate a distribution agreement for its Covid-19 antibody test kits in the US, amid increased competition for such kits. t said instead it would develop a new test kit with broader use outside of laboratory or clinical settings.
Biolidics had announced in February that it was aiming to obtain clinical validation of its cancer diagnostic solution in the second half of 2020. Once the solution passes the relevant clinical validation test, Biolidics will be responsible for the market promotion and applications, while LC-Bio will oversee the issuance of the test-result reports in its name.
Biolidics will make payment for these reports. It had previously announced that it plans to "launch and progressively market the cancer-diagnostic solutions to hospitals across China". With increasing incidence and mortality, cancer is the leading cause of death in China and has become a major public health problem, the company noted.
This project is viewed as being complementary to the group's core business in the development of cell enrichment systems, said Biolidics.
This agreement is not expected to have material impact on the net tangible assets and earnings per share of the group for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2020.
The company also noted that this agreement can be further renewed or terminated with mutual consent.
