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BUSINESS DESCRIPTION
9 Months Ended
Sep. 30, 2015
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 our 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 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 technology that amplifies the ability to detect genetic mutations by 100 - 400 fold. This technology 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 and can result in significant cost savings for the healthcare system by replacing invasive procedures with the simple collection of blood or other bodily fluids. 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 more patient friendly, enable genetic monitoring of disease progression, effectively guide treatment protocols, and reduce the overall cost of diagnosis and monitoring while improving patient outcomes.

Historically, our operations were organized and reviewed by management along our major product lines and presented in two business segments: Laboratory Services and Genetic Assays and Platforms. Beginning with the quarter ended September 30, 2015, our operations are now organized as one business segment, our Laboratory Services segment. 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.

Our condensed consolidated balance sheets, statements of operations and statements of cash flows for all periods presented reflect our former Genetic Assays and Platforms activities as discontinued operations (See Note 3 - “Discontinued Operations”).
Going Concern

The condensed consolidated financial statements have been prepared using accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America applicable for a going concern, which assume that we will realize our assets and discharge our liabilities in the ordinary course of business. We have incurred substantial operating losses and have used cash in our operating activities for the past few years. As of September 30, 2015, we had negative working capital of $43,000. Our 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 necessary, raising additional financing to meet our obligations and pay our 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 we will be able to continue as a going concern. These condensed consolidated financial statements do not include any adjustments to the amounts and classification of assets and liabilities that may be necessary should we be unable to continue as a going concern. We cannot be certain that additional financing will be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could limit our ability to continue our operations.