Cesca Therapeutics Shares Jump 11% Premarket After SynGen Deal

Cesca Therapeutics Inc. shares surged 11% in premarket trade Monday, after the provider of automated cell processing and point-of-care, autologous cell-based therapies said its wholly-owned unit ThermoGenesis Corp. has acquired assets from privately held SynGen Inc. Thermogenesis has acquired most of SynGen's assets, including cell processing platform technology, for 20% of its stock, plus $1 million in a one-time cash payment, in a deal that closed on July 7. Philip Coelho, co-founder and chief technology officer of SynGen, has become CTO of ThermoGenesis with immediate effect. Cesca has placed the assets of its blood and bone-marrow processing device business with ThermoGenesis, which will now operate its device business. "The continued evolution of personalized medicine, especially promising new oncology treatments such as CAR-T therapies, demand that target cell populations be harvested with increasing speed, purity and efficiency," Coelho said in a statement. Cesca shares are down 6.7% in 2017 through Friday, while the S&P 500 has gained 8%.