Premaitha Health PLC India Business Update (0855H)

TIDMNIPT

RNS Number : 0855H

Premaitha Health PLC

05 June 2017

Premaitha Health plc

("Premaitha" or the "Company" or the "Group")

India Business Update

Manchester, UK - 5 June 2017: Premaitha Health plc (AIM: NIPT), a leading international molecular diagnostics group focused on non-invasive prenatal testing, is pleased to provide an update on commercial progress in India.

Yourgene Bioscience ("Yourgene"), acquired by Premaitha in March 2017, is now firmly established as one of India's leading providers in the emerging non-invasive prenatal testing ("NIPT") market, with representation in 9 of the 15 most populous states and several of the largest nationwide pathology laboratory groups running Yourgene's NIPT workflow in-house. There are five laboratories with installed NIPT solutions, and an additional two laboratories are expected to become active later this year. These laboratories have an extensive network of hospitals feeding samples into them across all the regions of the country. In addition, there are currently thirteen Indian laboratory customers sending samples to Yourgene's laboratory in Taiwan for processing and analysis and the expectation is that some of these laboratories in time will establish their NIPT solution in house.

NIPT in India is still in an early phase of development and Yourgene's test volumes are growing at a rate of 100% per annum with coverage across all key metropolitan areas including Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai. India has the highest birth rate in the world with over 26 million births per annum, and access to prenatal screening is spreading to the expanding middle class populations living in the cities and regions where screening is available. Yourgene's menu-based test offering allows for testing to be tailored to local ethical and clinical requirements.

Dr Stephen Little, CEO, commented: "With its extremely high birth rate and growing middle class population we expect India, in time, to become a very large market for NIPT and we are well positioned to be one of the principal suppliers to the market in the years to come.

"Premaitha and Yourgene are working closely together to deliver a complementary test offering to suit all sizes of hospital and laboratory customer. We already have a leading presence with growing test volumes from an expanding customer base. I believe our combined product strategy positions us strongly to win significant market share in this country and others with similar health service characteristics."

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 
 [e-mail] 
 
 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 9700 
 Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia 
  Pollock 
 [e-mail] 
 

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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June 05, 2017 02:00 ET (06:00 GMT)