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BUSINESS DESCRIPTION
6 Months Ended
Jun. 30, 2017
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
BUSINESS DESCRIPTION
BUSINESS DESCRIPTION
Business Description

Precipio, Inc., and Subsidiary, (“we”, “us”, “our”, the “Company” or “Precipio”) is a cancer diagnostics company providing diagnostic products and services to the oncology market. We have built and continue to develop a platform designed to eradicate the problem of misdiagnosis by harnessing the intellect, expertise and technology developed within academic institutions and delivering quality diagnostic information to physicians and their patients worldwide. We operate a cancer diagnostic laboratory located in New Haven, Connecticut and have partnered with the Yale School of Medicine to capture the expertise, experience and technologies developed within academia so that we can provide a better standard of cancer diagnostics and solve the growing problem of cancer misdiagnosis. We also operate a research and development facility in Omaha, Nebraska which will focus on further development of ICE-COLD-PCR (“ICP”), the patented technology which was exclusively licensed by us from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Inc. (“Dana-Farber”) at Harvard University (“Harvard”). The research and development center will focus on the development of this technology, which we believe will enable us to commercialize other technologies developed by our current and future academic partners. Our platform connects patients, physicians and diagnostic experts residing within academic institutions. Launched in 2017, the platform facilitates the following relationships:

Patients: patients may search for physicians in their area and consult directly with academic experts that are on the platform. Patients may also have access to new academic discoveries as they become commercially available.

Physicians: physicians can connect with academic experts to seek consultations on behalf of their patients and may also provide consultations for patients in their area seeking medical expertise in that physician’s relevant specialty. Physicians will also have access to new diagnostic solutions to help improve diagnostic accuracy.

Academic Experts: academic experts on the platform can make themselves available for patients or physicians seeking access to their expertise. Additionally, these experts have a platform available to commercialize their research discoveries.

We intend to continue updating our platform to allow for patient-to-patient communications and allow individuals to share stories and provide support for one another, to allow physicians to consult with their peers to discuss and share challenges and solutions, and to allow academic experts to interact with others in academia on the platform to discuss their research and cross-collaborate.

ICP was developed at Harvard and is licensed exclusively by us from Dana-Farber. The technology enables the detection of genetic mutations in liquid biopsies, such as blood samples. The field of liquid biopsies is a rapidly growing market, aimed at solving the challenge of obtaining genetic information on disease progression and changes from sources other than a tumor biopsy.

Gene sequencing is performed on tissue biopsies taken surgically from the tumor site in order to identify potential therapies that will be more effective in treating the patient. There are several limitations to this process. First, surgical procedures have several limitations, including:

Cost: surgical procedures are usually performed in a costly hospital environment. For example, according to a recent study the mean cost of lung biopsies is greater than $14,000; surgery also involves hospitalization and recovery time.

Surgical access: various tumor sites are not always accessible (e.g. brain tumors), in which cases no biopsy is available for diagnosis.

Risk: patient health may not permit undergoing an invasive surgery; therefore a biopsy cannot be obtained at all.

Time: the process of scheduling and coordinating a surgical procedure often takes time, delaying the start of patient treatment.

Second, there are several tumor-related limitations that provide a challenge to obtaining such genetic information from a tumor:
Tumors are heterogeneous by nature: a tissue sample from one area of the tumor may not properly represent the tumor’s entire genetic composition; thus, the diagnostic results from a tumor may be incomplete and non-representative.

Metastases: in order to accurately test a patient with metastatic disease, ideally an individual biopsy sample should be taken from each site (if those sites are even known). These biopsies are very difficult to obtain; therefore physicians often rely on biopsies taken from the primary tumor site.

The advent of technologies enabling liquid biopsies as an alternative to tumor biopsy and analysis is based on the fact that tumors (both primary and metastatic) shed cells and fragments of DNA into the blood stream. These blood samples are called “liquid biopsies” that contain circulating tumor DNA, or ctDNA, which hold the same genetic information found in the tumor(s). That tumor DNA is the target of genetic analysis. However, since the quantity of tumor DNA is very small in proportion to the “normal” (or “healthy”) DNA within the blood stream, there is a need to identify and separate the tumor DNA from the normal DNA.

ICP is an enrichment technology that enables the laboratory to focus its analysis on the tumor DNA by enriching, and thereby “multiplying” the presence of, tumor DNA, while maintaining the normal DNA at its same level. Once the enrichment process has been completed, the laboratory genetic testing equipment is able to identify genetic abnormalities presented in the ctDNA, and an analysis can be conducted at a higher level of sensitivity, to enable the detection of such genetic abnormalities. The technology is encapsulated into a chemical that is provided in the form of a kit and sold to other laboratories who wish to conduct these tests in-house. The chemical within the kit is added to the specimen preparation process, enriching the sample for the tumor DNA so that the analysis will detect those genetic abnormalities.
Merger Transaction

On June 29, 2017, the Company (then known as “Transgenomic, Inc.”, or “Transgenomic”), completed a reverse merger (the “Merger”) with Precipio Diagnostics, LLC, a privately held Delaware limited liability company (“Precipio Diagnostics”) in accordance with the terms of the Agreement and Plan of Merger (the “Merger Agreement”), dated October 12, 2016, as amended on February 2, 2017 and June 29, 2017, by and among Transgenomic, Precipio Diagnostics and New Haven Labs Inc. (“Merger Sub”) a wholly-owned subsidiary of Transgenomic. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, Merger Sub merged with and into Precipio Diagnostics, with Precipio Diagnostics surviving the Merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the combined company (See Note 3 - Reverse Merger). In connection with the Merger, the Company changed its name from Transgenomic, Inc. to Precipio, Inc., relisted its common stock under Precipio, Inc. on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (“NASDAQ”), and effected a 1-for-30 reverse stock split of its common stock. Upon the consummation of the Merger, the historical financial statements of Precipio Diagnostics become the Company's historical financial statements. Accordingly, the historical financial statements of Precipio Diagnostics are included in the comparative prior periods. As a result of the Merger, historical preferred stock, common stock, restricted units, warrants and additional paid-in capital, including share and per share amounts, have been retroactively adjusted to reflect the equity structure of the combined company, including the effect of the Merger exchange ratio. Pursuant to the Merger Agreement, each outstanding share of capital stock of Precipio Diagnostic was exchanged for 10.2502 pre-reverse stock split shares of Company Common Stock (the “Exchange Ratio”). See Note 3 - Reverse Merger for additional discussion of the Merger.

 Going Concern
The condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared using accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”) applicable for a going concern, which assume that the Company will realize its assets and discharge its liabilities in the ordinary course of business. The Company has incurred substantial operating losses and has used cash in its operating activities for the past several years. As of June 30, 2017, the Company had a net loss of $4.4 million and negative working capital of $14.5 million. The Company’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon a combination of achieving its business plan, including generating additional revenue, and raising additional financing to meet its debt obligations and paying liabilities arising from normal business operations when they come due.

Precipio is currently in discussions with certain investors to raise additional capital. There can be no assurance such capital is or will be available at terms favorable or agreeable to management, if at all, or that the Company will successfully complete the proposed capital raise. Since the outcome of these matters cannot be predicted with any certainty at this time, there is substantial doubt that the Company will be able to continue as a going concern.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned circumstances, there remains substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. There can be no assurance that the Company will be able to successfully achieve its initiatives summarized above in order to continue as a going concern. The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming the Company will continue as a going concern and do not include any adjustments that might result should the Company be unable to continue as a going concern as a result of the outcome of this uncertainty.