Premaitha Health PLC Investment Agreement Extension with Thermo Fisher (7829K)
July 12 2017 - 1:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMNIPT
RNS Number : 7829K
Premaitha Health PLC
12 July 2017
Premaitha Health Plc
("Premaitha", the "Company" or the "Group")
Investment Agreement Extension with Thermo Fisher Scientific
Manchester, UK - 12 July 2017 - Premaitha Health Plc (AIM:
NIPT), a leading international molecular diagnostics group focused
on non-invasive prenatal testing, is pleased to announce that it
has entered into a further extension of the investment agreement
with Thermo Fisher Scientific ("Thermo Fisher") announced on 14
December 2015 and extended as announced on 23 September 2016,
further developing this important relationship.
Thermo Fisher is the world leader in serving science, with
revenues of over $18 billion and more than 55,000 employees in 50
countries. Premaitha's IONA(R) and SAGE(TM) prenatal screening
tests run on Thermo Fisher's DNA sequencing instruments and the
additional investment signifies a deepening of this relationship,
as well as a move to scale up the Group's commercial activities.
This includes continuing our geographic diversification strategy
and further broadening the Company's product and service offering;
as well as, in turn, accelerating pull-through of Thermo Fisher's
reagents and instruments.
Under the terms of the agreement, Thermo Fisher will make
available to Premaitha an additional secured loan facility of $5.0m
(the "Loan"), of which $4.0m will be drawn down immediately for the
purposes of working capital to support commercial growth
strategies. The remaining loan ("Second Tranche") will be drawn
down against performance milestones to be reviewed quarterly. The
new loan facility follows on from the existing facility, announced
on 14 December 2015 and extended as announced on 23 September 2016,
on similar terms. Specifically, interest on amounts drawn on the
Loan will accrue at a rate of 6 per cent per annum payable
quarterly in arrears or will be capable of conversion to loan
principal. The Loan is repayable on 14 December 2023, with the
option to repay sooner.
Under the terms of the Loan, Premaitha will issue Thermo Fisher
warrants over 28,938,797 new ordinary shares in the Company
exercisable at 10.725 pence ("New 2017 Warrants"), being a premium
of 10% over the closing share price on 10 July 2017 (the last
business day prior to issue of the New 2017 Warrants). A second
tranche of warrants will be issued on 1 March 2018, or earlier if
loan drawdowns commence on the Second Tranche, over new ordinary
shares in the Company at a premium of 10% over the closing share
price on the last business day prior to the date of issue.
Dr Stephen Little, CEO, commented: "I am delighted that an
organisation of Thermo Fisher's scale and reputation has chosen to
back Premaitha's next phase of expansion and deepen its
relationship with our group. It is further validation of our
non-invasive prenatal testing technologies and of their global
potential. This additional funding, combined with our existing
liquid resources, will enable Premaitha to accelerate the scale-up
of the business and meet its goal of becoming operating cashflow
self-sufficient by the end of the current financial year."
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
For more information, please contact:
Premaitha Health PLC Tel: +44 (0)161
Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive 667 1053
Officer
Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer
Joanne Cross, Head of Marketing
investors@premaitha.com
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD) Tel: +44 (0)20
Liam Murray / James Caithie 7213 0880
finnCap (Broker) Tel: +44 (0)20
Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson 7220 0500
(Corporate Finance)
Tony Quirke (Corporate Broking)
Vigo Communications Tel: +44 (0)20
Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia 7830 9700
Pollock
premaitha@vigocomms.com
About Premaitha
Premaitha is an international molecular diagnostics group which
uses the latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop
safer, faster and regulatory approved genetic screening tests. The
Group's primary focus is on non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for
pregnant women - an emerging, multi-billion dollar global
market.
Premaitha's IONA(R) test was launched in 2015 as the first
CE-IVD NIPT test in Europe. It enables laboratories and healthcare
practitioners to offer a complete CE-marked NIPT system in-house.
The IONA(R) test is performed on a maternal blood sample - which
contains traces of fetal DNA - and estimates the risk of a fetus
being affected with Down's syndrome or other genetic
conditions.
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 invasive follow up
diagnostic procedures, such as amniocentesis, which are costly,
resource intensive and carry a risk of miscarriage.
In March 2017, Premaitha acquired Yourgene Bioscience, a
specialist next generation sequencing and bioinformatics company
based in Taiwan, with its own NIPT screening test that operates on
the same Thermo Fisher next-generation sequencing platform as
Premaitha's IONA(R) test. Yourgene brings significant benefits to
the Group through expanded market access in Asia - the world's
fastest growing NIPT market - as well as opportunities for
cross-selling and the ability to jointly develop expanded test
content both within NIPT and beyond.
Premaitha is headquartered in Manchester, England, with Yourgene
offices in Taipei and Singapore. Its shares trade on the AIM market
of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: NIPT). For further information,
please visit www.premaitha.com. Follow us on twitter
@PremaithaHealth.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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