Premaitha Health PLC AGM Statement (5659N)
October 27 2016 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMNIPT
RNS Number : 5659N
Premaitha Health PLC
27 October 2016
Premaitha Health Plc
("Premaitha" or the "Company")
AGM Statement
Manchester, UK - 27 October 2016 - At the Annual General Meeting
of Premaitha to be held later today, Adam Reynolds, Non-executive
Chairman, will make the following statement:
"I am pleased to chair this annual general meeting which follows
the IONA(R) test's first full year of commercialisation. During
this period the Company made considerable progress in establishing
an initial customer base of laboratories which are now processing
tests for hospitals in the UK, Poland, Switzerland, France, Russia
and the Middle East. This resulted in the sale of over 17,000 tests
in our first commercial year, generating GBP2.5 million in sales
for Premaitha.
The international landscape for non-invasive prenatal testing is
evolving very considerably in Premaitha's favour - with numerous
countries moving towards making this safer testing procedure more
freely and readily available through public health services. We
expect the UK to soon make NIPT freely available to high risk women
on the NHS and for other countries to follow suit. The IONA(R) test
is a fully CE approved system and is exceptionally well placed to
win significant market share as awareness of the availability of
NIPT increases.
The number of laboratories using the IONA(R) test continues to
grow. I am pleased to note that trading in the first half of the
current financial year was materially above the equivalent period
last year, positioning Premaitha comfortably on track to outperform
the IONA(R) test's first full commercial year.
With a total of eleven laboratories now operational, and two
more due to go live before Christmas, along with substantial
support from Thermo Fisher, Premaitha is in an excellent position
to continue its growth path.
We are very encouraged by the growth we have seen in the Middle
East and we are focusing substantial efforts within this region and
in Asia Pacific and hope to announce shortly a number of sizeable
commercial agreements. The demand within these territories for NIPT
is very strong and in particular the quality of product offered by
the IONA(R) test is a source of competitive advantage.
Litigation
Notwithstanding the commercial progress being made, the patent
infringement proceedings launched by Illumina continue and we are
not the only party receiving their attentions. We are mounting a
vigorous defence, taking decisive steps to de-risk the business
through geographic diversification, and we are encouraged by the
intervention of the European Commission with an investigation into
potentially anti-competitive behaviour by Illumina and
Sequenom.
Despite short-term distractions caused by the infringement
claims of Illumina, Premaitha is building a highly compelling
business, which will be global within the next twelve months.
Considering eighteen months ago we had zero sales, this is
testament to the quality of offering that we have in the market
place.
Widescale adoption of NIPT will not happen overnight; but we
have absolutely no doubt that the developed world is moving towards
it; and that Premaitha is well placed to gain a large share of the
market."
The information contained within this announcement constitutes
inside information stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation
(EU) No. 596/2014.
For more information, please contact:
Premaitha Health plc Tel: +44 (0)
161 667 1053
Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive
Office
Barry Hextall, Chief Financial
Officer
Joanne Cross, Head of Marketing
investors@premaitha.com
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad) Tel: +44 (0)
20 7213 0880
Liam Murray / Jo Turner
finnCap (Broker) Tel: +44 (0)
20 7220 0500
Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson
(Corporate Finance)
Tony Quirke (Corporate Broking)
Vigo Communications Tel: +44 (0)
20 7830 9704
Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia
Pollock
premaitha@vigocomms.com
About Premaitha
Premaitha is a molecular diagnostics company which uses the
latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop safer, faster
and regulatory approved non-invasive screening tests for pregnant
women.
Premaitha's lead test - the IONA(R) test - was launched in
February 2015 and is the leading CE marked complete system which
estimates the risk of a fetus being affected with Down's syndrome
or other genetic conditions. The IONA(R) test is performed on the
mother's blood sample - which contains traces of fetal DNA - and
then analysed using next generation DNA sequencing technology from
ThermoFisher Scientific.
Unlike existing prenatal screening methods, due to its high
level of accuracy, the IONA(R) test can significantly reduce the
number of women subjected to unnecessary stressful and invasive
follow-up diagnostic procedures which are costly, resource
intensive and carry a risk of miscarriage.
Non-invasive prenatal screening is an emerging, multi-billion
dollar global market and Premaitha's complete CE marked system
enables laboratories and health care practitioners to offer an
approved, non-invasive prenatal screening system in-house.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
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