Premaitha Health PLC Further Patent Infringement Claims (1506Q)
September 07 2017 - 9:10AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMNIPT
RNS Number : 1506Q
Premaitha Health PLC
07 September 2017
Premaitha Health plc
("Premaitha" or the "Company")
Further patent infringement claims received from Illumina &
Sequenom
Manchester, UK - 7 September 2017: Premaitha Health plc (AIM:
NIPT) announces that it has today received notification from
Illumina and Sequenom that a further claim for patent infringement
has been filed in the High Court of Justice in London.
Premaitha is a leading international molecular diagnostics group
focused on non-invasive prenatal testing ("NIPT") and has been
robustly defending itself against previous claims from the same
parties since March 2015. The new claim is that Premaitha's IONA(R)
test is alleged to infringe European Patent (UK) 1 524 321 82,
known as the "321" patent, as filed by Sequenom in 2003. The other
claims were of a similar nature and were heard by the UK High Court
in July 2017, with the initial ruling anticipated in or around
November 2017.
Dr Stephen Little, CEO, commented: "This latest claim uses old,
publicly available information and we believe it is an attempt to
abuse the legal process in the UK to obtain competitive advantage.
That such large companies as Illumina and Sequenom should deem it
necessary to compete in this way is disappointing but not
unexpected, and we will robustly defend the company against these
claims as well as bring their behaviour to the attention of the
relevant competition authorities.
Providing high quality and effective prenatal screening to UK
women remains a very important focus for us, despite these unwanted
attentions. In parallel we continue to grow our much larger non-UK
activities to diversify our operations."
For more information, please contact:
Premaitha Health plc Tel: +44 (0)
161 667 6865
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 / James Caithie
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 9701
Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia
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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