Cetus Corp. announced late Tuesday that a Delaware ChanceryCourt has denied a preliminary injunction sought by EastmanKodak Co. to block the sale of Cetus' polymerase chain reactiontechnology to Hoffmann-La Roche Inc.
The decision clears the way for Cetus' proposed merger withChiron Corp. if Roche complies with a condition set by JudgeCarolyn Berger.
According to Cetus, an injunction would have blocked the twoEmeryville, Calif., companies from completing their deal. Cetusis selling its PCR business to Roche for $300 million plus futureroyalties as part of the merger.
The court's denial depends on its obtaining by this Friday anagreement that Roche will be bound by the decision of thearbitrators in an arbitration pending between Cetus and Kodak.If Roche does not agree, the court will renew consideration of apreliminary injunction.
Cetus plans to go ahead with its stockholder vote on themerger, said company President Hollings Renton. The vote isscheduled for Dec. 10.
The dispute arises out of a 1986 collaboration between Cetusand Kodak to develop in vitro diagnostics that was terminatedin 1989.
Kodak of Rochester, N.Y., filed suit in August claiming that thesale would interfere with the pending arbitration over rights tocommercialize the technology. Kodak claims that it hassubstantial exclusive rights to diagnostic applications of PCRtechnology. Cetus says that Kodak has rights to only a limitednumber of products, if any.
The two sides are in the process of choosing arbitrators in theproceedings, which were initiated by Kodak in April.
Cetus shares (NASDAQ:CTUS) closed at $18.13, up 13 cents,prior to the announcement. Chiron (NASDAQ:CHIR) was down63 cents at $62.
-- Karen Bernstein BioWorld Staff
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