Response Genetics Buys Proprietary FDA-Cleared, Medicare-Reimbursed Test, All Associated Assets for Difficult to Diagnose Solid Tumors

Response Genetics, Inc.

, a company focused on the development and sale of molecular diagnostic tests for cancer, today announced the acquisition of all of the key assets of Pathwork Diagnostics, including its FDA-cleared, Medicare-reimbursed test for the diagnosis of metastatic, poorly differentiated and undifferentiated cancer. Terms of the deal include a $200,000 cash payment and issuance of 500,000 shares of Response Genetics common stock with a lock-up period through June 2014. The Company expects the deal to be accretive within its first full year of acquisition. The acquired assets and associated test use a proprietary microarray platform and proprietary software to compare the expression of 2,000 genes in a patient's tumor with a panel of 15 known tumor types that represent 90% of all cancers. The test received FDA clearance in June 2010 and is the most published, extensively validated molecular diagnostic test of its kind. Prior to its acquisition by Response Genetics, the test generated rapidly growing sales including 2012 sales dollar volume in the mid-seven figure range. The identity of most tumors can be determined using traditional methods. However, when tumors are poorly differentiated or metastatic with no clear primary origin, providing a definitive diagnosis is usually very difficult or nearly impossible to determine. It is estimated that up to 150,000 newly-diagnosed cancer patients annually, in just the U.S., may have a tumor for which the site of origin is uncertain after the initial diagnostic workup.