The beleaguered digital X-ray maker said its proposal to creditors has been accepted, resulting in the sale of Liponex’s CRD5 drug assets to French firm Cerenis, which also makes “good cholesterol” increasing compounds for treating heart disease.
The bulk of Cerenis’s $75,000 initial payment will go towards paying off ImaSight's accumulated tax losses of more than $12 million, with the rest to be used to pay its restructuring fees “to maintain its activities in the future.”
As part of the agreement, Cerenis has agreed to pay the royalty payments to ImaSight’s debtors on any direct and indirect sales of CRD5 until the company’s remaining debt is paid in full.
ImaSight Corp., which now operates as an independent corporation after divesting the digital X-ray subsidiary, will simply serve as a vehicle for distributing royalty payments, the company said.
“The corporation is still in default of its obligations to comply with TSX requirements and does not know if it will be in position to comply in the future,” ImaSight’s statement read.
The remaining digital X-ray business is now known as ImaSight Inc., and has plans to sell more products in the U.S. and Canada following the news in September 2009 that it's received approval for its ImaSight 4600 technology from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, along with a $500,000 investment.
It’s the culmination of a long struggle for ImaSight and its Liponex subsidiary, which itself was a public company that went under after failed trials and difficulties in securing viable partnerships.
ImaSight and Liponex merged in mid-2008, with CEO John Brooks saying at the time that he believed there was “substantial value” in the CRD5 portfolio and that he planned to seek partners to help develop the compound, either as a drug or as a natural therapy product.
A few months later, in August 2008, Mr. Brooks indicated there were about three companies interested in buying CRD5.
Then, in November of that year, ImaSight announced a “temporary” shutdown of Liponex, although Mr. Brooks continued to express optimism that the company would be able to secure a licensing deal for the good cholestrol compound.
However, in February 2009, ImaSight said it would be filing for bankruptcy protection and would be selling off Liponex’s assets. The company also noted it was considering shedding its public listing to save costs.
