(Adds details on U.S. and UK operations, details on the
incident)
Jan 28 (Reuters) - Medical products maker Tissue Regenix
Group said on Tuesday its computer systems and a
third-party IT service provider in the United States were
accessed without authorization, sending its shares down as much
as 22%.
The company said it had taken the affected systems offline,
appointed external specialists to investigate the incident and
was in talks with relevant legal authorities, but did not
provide details on when the incident occurred or came to
light.
The Leeds-based company's ability to manufacture at its U.S.
facility will be hit in the short term while the investigation
continues, it said, adding that the incident is not believed to
have affected its UK operations or financial systems.
Tissue Regenix, which was formed in 2006 when it was
spun-out from the University of Leeds, develops a special kind
of tissue that is not rejected by a patient's body and can be
used to repair diseased or worn out body parts.
The company said it was yet to quantify any potential
financial hit from the hack. Tissue Regenix set up its U.S. unit
in late 2012.
Its shares, listed on London's junior AIM market, recovered
some losses to trade down 14.3% at 1.05 pence as of 1032 GMT.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru
Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty, Bernard Orr)