Cypress Bioscience Inc (CYPB)

[eastunder]

Exagen buys Cypress’ diagnostics business
New Mexico Business Weekly

Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 2:57pm MDT

(link back on original - this shows terms)

http://albuquerque.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2010/10/11/daily28.html?ana=yfcpc

Exagen Diagnostics Inc. acquired the medical diagnostics division of Cypress Bioscience Inc. in San Diego, Calif.

Albuquerque-based Exagen agreed to pay up to $8 million for the division’s assets, including all testing services, intellectual property rights and equipment. Exagen will make a $4 million upfront cash payment in two installments over the next 24 months and another $4 million, or up to that amount, in milestone payments. In addition, Cypress is eligible to receive a 10 percent royalty on defined product sales.

Exagen will assume the lease for Cypress’s laboratory operations in San Diego, and all of the Cypress lab employees will be offered positions with the new owner.

Cypress (NASDAQ: CYPB) is a pharmaceutical company that develops innovative drugs to treat central nervous system disorders.

Exagen is a venture capital-backed startup that uses proprietary computational software to rapidly screen huge volumes of genetic information, allowing it to identify key sets of genes as biomarkers to diagnose diseases. It has developed genetics-based tests for inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome, as well as diagnostics for breast cancer, hepatitis C and other diseases.