Premaitha Health PLC Second tranche of warrants issued to Thermo Fisher (2363B)

TIDMNIPT

RNS Number : 2363B

Premaitha Health PLC

31 March 2017

Premaitha Health Plc

("Premaitha" or the "Company")

Second tranche of warrants issued to Thermo Fisher Scientific

Manchester, UK - 31 March 2017 - Premaitha Health PLC (AIM: NIPT), a leading international molecular diagnostics group focused on prenatal testing, announces that it has issued the second tranche of warrants to Thermo Fisher Scientific ("Thermo Fisher") as part of the investment agreement extension announced on 23 September 2016 ("Agreement").

Under the terms of the Agreement, Premaitha agreed to issue a second and final tranche of warrants for the equivalent of GBP2.0m by 1 April 2017. The warrants issued ("2017 Warrants") are over 16,913,319 new ordinary shares in the Company exercisable at 11.825 pence, being a premium of 10% over the closing share price on 30 March 2017 (the last business day prior to issue of the 2017 Warrants).

-Ends-

 
For more information, please contact: 
Premaitha Health PLC                     Tel: +44 (0) 
 Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive       161 667 1053 
 Officer                                  [e-mail] 
 Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer 
 Joanne Cross, Head of Marketing 
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD)     Tel: +44 (0) 
 Liam Murray / James Caithie              20 7213 0880 
finnCap (Broker)                         Tel: +44 (0) 
 Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson        20 7220 0500 
 (Corporate Finance) 
 Tony Quirke (Corporate Broking) 
Vigo Communications                      Tel: +44 (0) 
 Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia      20 7830 9700 
 Pollock 
 [e-mail] 
 

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.

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

END

MSCJBMITMBIJBRR

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 31, 2017 11:00 ET (15:00 GMT)