REG - Premaitha Health PLC - Premaitha secures market entry into Egypt <Origin Href="QuoteRef">NIPT.L</Origin>

Yourgene HealthAnnouncement

16/02/2018 07:05

RNS Number : 0580F
Premaitha Health PLC
16 February 2018
Premaitha Health plc
("Premaitha" or the "Company")
Premaitha secures market entry into Egypt
Manchester, UK - 16 February 2018: Premaitha Health plc (AIM: NIPT), a leading international molecular diagnostics group focused on non-invasive prenatal testing ("NIPT"), announces that it has signed an exclusive agreement (the "Agreement") with a new partner (the "Partner") to offer the IONA test across Egypt. As a result of the Agreement, the Company is pleased to have secured its first Egyptian customer, a private reference testing laboratory (the "Laboratory"), located in Cairo.
It is expected that the Laboratory will be fully installed by the end of Q2 2018 and will provide the IONA test to its network of hospitals and clinics across the greater Cairo region. With a population of over 20 million people in Cairo alone - and approximately 2.8 million births per annum throughout Egypt - the Partner plans to establish additional installed laboratories for the IONA test in other strategic locations. 
Premaitha's IONA test estimates the risk of a fetus being affected with Down's syndrome or other genetic conditions. The test is performed on a maternal blood sample, containing traces of fetal DNA, which is then analysed using next generation DNA sequencing technology. The test is highly accurate and significantly reduces the number of women who are unnecessarily subjected to risky, invasive follow up procedures to diagnose Down's syndrome and other genetic conditions.
Dr Stephen Little, CEO of Premaitha Health, commented:"We are delighted to enter another country, particularly one with both a significant population and an appetite for high quality genetic screening. Today's announcement is further demonstration of delivering against our strategy of geographic diversification. We look forward to working closely with our new partner in Egypt, which we hope will become another significant market for Premaitha."
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
For more information, please contact:
Premaitha Health PLC
Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive Officer
Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer
Joanne Cross, Head of Marketing
investors@premaitha.com
Tel: +44 (0)161 667 1053
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD)
Liam Murray / James Caithie
Tel: +44 (0)20 7213 0880
finnCap (Broker)
Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson (Corporate Finance)
Andrew Burdis / Abigail Wayne (Corporate Broking)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7220 0500
Vigo Communications
Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia Pollock
premaitha@vigocomms.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 7830 9700
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 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 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 test can significantly reduce the number of women subjected to unnecessaryinvasive 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 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.

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