Ekf Diagnostics Regulatory News (EKF)

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc

("EKF" or "the Company")

US Patent Grant

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), a growing business within the in-vitro diagnostic devices market, announces that it has been granted a patent in the US for its HemoPoint H2 cuvettes.

Further to the announcement made on 29 November 2011, EKF has been issued with a Grant of Patent Rights by the US Patent and Trademark Office in relation to patent rights for the cuvettes that are used with the HemoPoint H2, EKF's hemoglobin measurement system. This follows on from the notice of allowance received in November last year.

EKF also announced in November that it had received CLIA waived status from the US Food and Drug Administration for the HemoPoint H2 allowing Alere Inc., the exclusive distributor of the HemoPoint H2 product, to begin sales into the US market.

Commenting, Julian Baines, CEO of EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc, said:

"The granting of the Patent in the US for our cuvettes provides important protection for our unique product as it is sold into the US haemoglobin testing market by our US partner Alere."

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About EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc was formed in July 2010 following the acquisition of EKF-diagnostic GmbH for €14.32m and refocused its strategy to one of building a substantial point of care diagnostics business. As part of this strategy, the Group has integrated three further acquisitions, Quotient Diagnostics Limited (acquired in October 2010 for a maximum of £5.41m), Argutus Medical Limited (acquired in December 2010 for £2.18m) and Stanbio Laboratory L.P. (acquired in June 2011 for a maximum of US$25.5m).

The Company, with its head office in Cardiff and operations in London, Germany, Poland, Russia, Ireland and the US, is a leading diagnostics business, focused on the development, production and distribution of chemical reagents and analysers for the testing of Glucose, Lactate, Haemoglobin, Haematocrit and HbA1c.

In May 2011 EKF entered into a distribution agreement with Alere Inc ("Alere"), a global diagnostics company, under which Alere was appointed the exclusive distributor of EKF's CLIA waived Hemo_Control device and cuvettes in the US, Canada and United Kingdom. The device is distributed in the US under the name HemoPoint H2. 

For more information please visit the website: www.ekfdiagnostics.co.uk