SiliconBeat

Shares of Vermillion, the Fremont company formerly known as Ciphergen Biosystems that develops medical diagnostic tests, were delisted from the Nasdaq stock market last week after failing to lift its stockholder equity above the minimum level required for continued listing. Its shares (ticker: VRML) can now be found in the Pink Sheets, an electronic quotation service for stocks traded over-the-counter, according to a company filing Thursday.

In July, Vermillion agreed to pay ThinkPanmure, a San Francisco “global growth company” investment banking firm, a $150,000 retainer out of its $5 million in remaining cash to help it evaluate “strategic alternatives” to improve its peripheral arterery disease blood test and ovarian tumor triage test, according to the company’s quarterly financial filing.

Vermillion’s cash position was not helped by the freezing up of $4.6 million the company invested in auction rate securities whose underlying assets included student loans guaranteed by the U.S. government. The investment was intended to provide liquidy through an auction process that would reset the interest rate paid on the securities about once a month, but the auctions for such securities have failed since early this year.

The company, which had no sales in 2007 after it sold its instruments business, has accumulated $248 million in losses.