ASP.L Regulatory News (ASP)

25 Apr 2005 11:52

Ascribe plc25 April 2005 Press Release 25 April 2005 Ascribe plc ("Ascribe" or "the Group") Trading Update Ascribe (AIM:ASP), the health IT group focusing on medicines management,announces further contract wins, licence extensions and a good start to 2005trading. Ascribe believes it will continue to perform in line with analysts'expectations in the second half of its financial year, ending on 30 June 2005.The new business announced today will generate approximately £650k of salesincome with recurring maintenance revenue thereafter. Ascribe's Pharmacy division has won three new contracts since the beginning of2005. These contracts will run for between three and five years and include thesale of Ascribe pharmacy software to the Co Durham & Darlington NHS Trust andthe Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust. Furthermore, in the same period thePharmacy Systems at Darlington Memorial, Bishop Auckland General and KetteringGeneral Hospitals have been installed and gone live. In the Group's Mental Health and Child Care division the widening community useof ePEX software in the installed base has resulted in extensions to customeruser licences. Since January the Primary Care Trusts in Merseyside, Barnet,Solihull, Devon, Rotherham, West Kent, North Warwickshire and Plymouth have allextended their licences to embrace extended electronic care management acrosshealth and social care communities. The upgraded ePEX product, a shared information system for health and socialcare, will incorporate an optional major new messaging component which willenable users to interface with other systems used in local governmentdepartments and the new Child Trusts, thereby extending its coverage. Thissoftware is expected to be used later in the year for connection to the NationalNHS Data Spine (the new national network and repository for Patient RecordManagement). Stephen Critchlow, Chairman and Chief Executive of Ascribe, said: "I am verypleased with the Group's performance in 2005. The new contract wins and licenceextensions underline the market's favourable impression of Ascribe's softwaresolutions that meets the real needs of our customers today. The Group's growthin market share and profitability is delivering the shareholder value envisagedat the time of flotation. - Ends - For further information:Ascribe plcStephen Critchlow, Chairman and Chief Executive Tel: +44(0) 161 280 8080stephen.critchlow@ascribe.comJeremy Lee, Group Finance Directorjeremy.lee@ascribe.com www.ascribe.com Seymour Pierce LimitedMark Percy Tel: +44(0) 20 7107 8000markpercy@seymourpierce.com www.seymourpierce.com Media enquiries:AbchurchHenry Harrison-Topham Tel: +44 (0) 20 7398 7700henry.ht@abchurch-group.com www.abchurch-group.com Notes to editors Ascribe is a health IT group focusing on medicines management through thedevelopment and marketing of software solutions supporting patient, clinical andbusiness processes to the international healthcare market. The Group consistsof ASC Computer Software Limited ("ASC"), a software supplier to hospitalpharmacy departments internationally and Protechnic Exeter Limited, a providerof software solutions to the primary healthcare market. Ascribe joined AIM on17 December 2004 raising £5.5m before expenses. The software produced by Ascribe addresses the Audit Commission report "ASpoonful of Sugar" published in 2001, which identified potentially up to 1,200lives and £500 million per year from certain medication errors in UK hospitalsalone could be saved using clinical information systems. Ascribe's systemenables pharmacists to store information about the patients they treat and usethis information to assist in their decision-making. The system also integrateswith stock control procedures. The latest web based product has further enabledtechnology to link the information between customers building a solution wherethe risk of the above medication errors can be reduced. Protechnic Exeter supports those who provide care within Primary Care,Community, Mental Health and Social Care. Its ePEX software is widely usedthoughout the United Kingdom and Ireland to provide specialist mental healthsystems to support the administration, clinical management and informationactivities of the Trusts; and child care systems for interactive scheduling forvaccinations, immunisations and surveillance, providing a longitudinal record ofpatients from birth into adulthood for all community services. Its Exetersoftware is widely used by UK GP practices. After considerable investment in the web based software, the Group's strategy isusing this web based software to enhance its offering, initially to ProtechnicExeter customers and then to customers of other acquisitions as they arecompleted and integrated, delivering a Group capable of addressing the wholemedicines management market. For further information, please visit www.ascribe.com This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange