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BUSINESS DESCRIPTION
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Business Description
BUSINESS DESCRIPTION
Business Description.

Transgenomic, Inc. (“we”, “us”, “our”, the “Company” or “Transgenomic”) is a global biotechnology company advancing personalized medicine for the detection and treatment of cancer and inherited diseases through its proprietary molecular technologies and world-class clinical and research services. A key goal is to bring our Multiplexed ICE COLD-PCR (“MX-ICP”) product to the clinical market rapidly through strategic licensing agreements, enabling the use of blood and other bodily fluids for more effective and patient-friendly diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of cancer.

MX-ICP is a simple, proprietary chemistry that amplifies the ability to detect genetic mutations by 100 - 400 fold. This chemistry has been validated internally on all currently available sequencing platforms, including Sanger, Next Gen Sequencing and Digital PCR. By enhancing the level of detection of genetic mutations and suppressing the normal, “wild-type” DNA, several benefits are provided. It is generally understood that most current technologies are unable to consistently identify mutations that occur in less than approximately 5% of a sample. However, many mutations found at much lower levels, even down to 0.01% are known to be clinically relevant and can have significant consequences to a patient: both in terms of how they will respond to a given drug or treatment and how a given tumor is likely to change over time. More importantly, in our view, significantly improving the level of detection while using blood, saliva and even urine as a source for DNA, rather than depending on painful, expensive and potentially dangerous tumor biopsies, is an important advancement in patient care with respect to cancer detection, treatment and monitoring of the disease and can result in significant cost savings for the healthcare system by replacing invasive procedures with the simple collection of blood or other bodily fluid. By broadening the types of samples that can be used for testing and allowing all sequencing platforms to provide improved identification of low level mutations, MX-ICP has the potential to make testing much more patient friendly, enable genetic monitoring of disease progression and more effectively guide treatment protocols, and reduce the overall cost of diagnosis and monitoring while also improving patient outcomes.

Currently, our operations are organized and reviewed by management along its major product lines and presented in the following two business segments;
Laboratory Services. Our laboratories specialize in genetic testing for cardiology, neurology and mitochondrial disorders, and for oncology. Our Patient Testing laboratories located in New Haven, Connecticut and Omaha, Nebraska are certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (“CLIA”) as high complexity laboratories and our Omaha facility is accredited by the College of American Pathologists. Our Biomarker Identification laboratory located in Omaha provides pharmacogenomics research services supporting Phase II and Phase III clinical trials conducted by pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Our laboratories employ a variety of genomic testing service technologies, including our new, high performance MX-ICP technology. ICE COLD-PCR is a proprietary ultra-high sensitivity platform technology with breakthrough potential to enable wide adoption of personalized, precision medicine in cancer and other diseases. It can be run in any laboratory that contains standard PCR systems. MX-ICP enables detection of multiple known and unknown mutations from virtually any sample type, including tissue biopsies, blood, urine, saliva, cell-free DNA (“cfDNA”) and circulating tumor cells (“CTCs”) at levels greater than 1,000-fold higher than standard DNA sequencing techniques. It is easy to implement and use within existing workflows.
Genetic Assays and Platforms. Our proprietary product in this business segment is the WAVE® System, which has broad applicability to genetic variation detection in both molecular genetic research and molecular diagnostics. We also distribute bio-instruments produced by other manufacturers (“OEM Equipment”) through our sales and distribution network. Service contracts to maintain installed systems are sold and supported by our technical support personnel. The installed WAVE base and some OEM Equipment platforms generate a demand for consumables that are required for the continued operation of the bio-instruments. We develop, manufacture and sell these consumable products. In addition, we manufacture and sell consumable products that can be used on multiple, independent platforms. These products include a range of chromatography columns.
Going Concern

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared using accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America applicable for a going concern which assumes 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 few years. As of December 31, 2014, the Company had working capital of approximately $2.3 million. During the first quarter of 2015, the Company received net proceeds of approximately $7.1 million from the issuance and sale of unsecured convertible promissory notes and issuance of common stock. Including the recent financing, the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon a combination of generating additional revenue, improving cash collections, potentially selling underutilized assets and, if needed, raising necessary financing to meet its obligations and pay its liabilities arising from normal business operations when they come due. The outcome of these matters cannot be predicted with any certainty at this time and raises substantial doubt that the Company will be able to continue as a going concern. These consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments to the amounts and classification of assets and liabilities that may be necessary should the Company be unable to continue as a going concern. The Company cannot be certain that additional financing will be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and its failure to raise capital when needed could limit its ability to continue its operations.