ImmuCell Corp. of Portland has sold some of its technology to a British firm for $700,000, the company said Wednesday.

The sale includes intellectual property related to a diagnostic test ImmuCell developed in the 1990s to detect the presence of the microscopic parasite Cryptosporidium in drinking water, the company said in a news release. The buyer is TCS Biosciences Ltd of Buckingham, United Kingdom.

The technology was originally developed by the company as part of an initiative to develop a passive antibody product for humans and a water test for the U.S. market, which it said has since been discontinued.

While those products and markets did not materialize for ImmuCell, which produces bovine health products for the beef and dairy industries, it said TCS became a distributor of the water diagnostic product in the U.K.

“This product is not a significant component of our total sales or profits today and not a core focus of our business strategy going forward,” said ImmuCell President and CEO Michael Brigham. “TCS has been a great partner to work with and is more focused on this market segment than we are. It makes sense for them to control this technology and make the investments necessary to increase sales.”

A payment of $250,000 was received up front, and the remaining $450,000 is due in two payments during the second half of 2019, ImmuCell said. The company has retained the rights to all animal health, diagnostic, feed and nutritional applications of the technology. The agreement also includes a purchase order for products manufactured by ImmuCell worth roughly $125,000 that may be sold to TCS during the first quarter of 2019, it said.

J. Craig Anderson can be contacted at 791-6390 or at:

canderson@pressherald.com

Twitter: @jcraiganderson

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