By Donald Zuhn —

Oracle Healthcare Acquisition Corp. and Precision Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that the companies have entered into a merger agreement.  Precision Therapeutics, Inc. is a privately-owned life sciences company based in Pittsburgh, PA that focuses on the development and commercialization of tests for use in individualizing cancer therapy.  Oracle Healthcare Acquisition is a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company based in Greenwich, CT, which was formed in 2005 for the purpose of acquiring an operating business in the healthcare industry.

Under the merger agreement, Precision Therapeutics, Inc. will be the surviving corporation, and Oracle Healthcare Acquisition will change its name to Precision Therapeutics Corp. and operate as a subsidiary of Precision Therapeutics, Inc.  The combined company will be based in Pittsburgh.  Further details concerning the merger can be found in the companies’ statement.

Precision Therapeutics President and CEO Sean McDonald stated that the merger "would provide the financial resources to capitalize on the progress we have made in commercializing our ChemoFx test."  ChemoFx® is a chemoresponse test that uses a patient’s tumor cells to assess the patient’s likelihood of responding to various cancer drugs, or drug combinations.  The test measures both the sensitivity and resistance of a patient’s tumor cells to single or multiple chemotherapeutic agents, thereby allowing for the formulation of an optimal therapy choice for the patient.  According to Precision Therapeutics’ website, ChemoFx® is currently being used to analyze fifteen different solid tumors, including breast, ovarian, endometrial, colorectal, genitourinary, head and neck, lung, brain, pancreas, and hepato-biliary.

Precision Therapeutics’ patent portfolio includes seven U.S. patents and four U.S. patent application publications.