Sorrento Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SRNE) is trading higher Wednesday morning after the company announced that its rapid COVID-19 test, COVI-STIX, was added to the official Mexican government list of emergency use antigen tests.
COVI-STIX is a 15-minute rapid diagnostic test for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus nucleocapsid antigen in nasal or nasopharyngeal samples of patients.
Mexico has had close to 2.4 million cases and over 225,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Said CEO Henry Ji, “We are very grateful to COFEPRIS for working with us closely on this review and listing us for use in Mexico. We look forward to working even more closely with the Mexican government to help deploy our test at scale.”
Moreover, the company announced Tuesday the purchase of ACEA Therapeutics Inc.
ACEA thus became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sorrento. The total value of the consideration payable to the holders of securities of ACEA in the merger was $38,000,000, subject to certain adjustments for interest expenses, indebtedness, transaction expenses and cash.
In total, 5,519,469 shares of Sorrento common stock were issued at closing in satisfaction of certain outstanding indebtedness of ACEA. In addition to the foregoing consideration, and subject to the achievement of certain clinical and sales milestones.
Said Ji, “This is a value-inflection acquisition for Sorrento as we bring in multiple NCE drug product candidates, including the previously licensed Abivertinib as an anchoring small molecule drug product for treating many different cancers and autoimmune diseases,”
SRNE shares rocketed 53 cents, or 7%, to $8.18.