Tristel Regulatory News (TSTL)

Tristel plc

("Tristel" or "the Company")

Strategic investment

Tristel makes a strategic investment in Mobile ODT, an Israeli company that is combining smartphone technology with hand-held medical devices for point-of-care diagnostics

Tristel plc (AIM: TSTL), the manufacturer of infection prevention products, announces that it has made a US$750,000 investment in Mobile ODT ("MODT") an Israeli company that is combining smartphone technology with hand-held medical devices to make diagnostics available at the point-of-care (www.mobileodt.com). Tristel is taking a 3.27% equity stake. Francisco Soler, Chairman of Tristel, and Paul Barnes, NED, are also making personal investments in the fund raising, for which the lead investor is Orbimed Healthcare Advisors (www.orbimed.com). MODT has raised total funding of approximately US$10.7 million. Tristel will have a seat on the MODT board of directors.

MODT has developed the proprietary EVA System, a smart-phone based medical device, which enables any healthcare provider, anywhere in the world, to examine patients for indications of cervical cancer using a technique known as colposcopy. The product was approved by the USA FDA in 2016. The EVA System is especially relevant in lesser-resourced healthcare settings as it is significantly less expensive than the traditional examination device (colposcope). Furthermore, it is portable and self-contained, and enables consultation with medical experts who may be located remotely from the examination site.

Tristel's Duo high-level disinfectant foam is the perfect partner for EVA - as it is portable and self-contained, has no requirement for water or power supply, requires no maintenance, and can be used with minimal training. Duo is an eminently affordable disinfection option. Tristel and MODT intend to combine EVA and Duo into an integrated offer to healthcare providers, with the MODT App enabling healthcare providers to ensure compliance with best disinfection practice.

The EVA System requires high-level disinfection given the area of the anatomy the device examines, and very importantly must be disinfected by a chemistry that can destroy HPV (Human papilloma virus). HPV is responsible for 5% of all cancers worldwide, 99.5% of cervical cancers, and is a leading cause of oral, throat, anal and genital cancers in both women and men. Whilst HPV is widely believed to be sexually transmitted, numerous studies have shown that the virus also exists on gynaecological equipment. Duo has recently been proven in pioneering work by Dr Craig Meyers PhD, Distinguished Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Penn State College of Medicine, Hershey, USA to be effective in deactivating HPV 16 and 18 strains in a two-minute contact time. HPV 16 and 18 are the virus strains most closely associated with causing cervical cancer. The only other commercially available disinfectant to have proven efficacy against HPV 16 and 18 in the same test conditions is Trophon (www.nanosonics.com.au), a fixed location disinfection machine which would be difficult to use in lesser-resourced healthcare settings, and requiring capital investment, unaffordable in many situations.

Paul Swinney, CEO, comments: "There are 5.8 billion people worldwide who have no access to healthcare that we would consider adequate, yet a great number of this population has access to a mobile phone. In low resource settings, whether on the African continent or in rural America, medical care is provided by nurses, trained to a general level of medical knowledge. Smartphones, combined with devices that can illuminate a part of the body and take a picture, or carry out an ultrasound scan, enable community nurses to examine the patient and transmit images for consultation provided remotely. In time, artificial intelligence will provide diagnosis. This is a new frontier in medicine that is developing rapidly.

"During our twenty-year experience in infection prevention, we have observed that disinfection is often an afterthought in medical device innovation. Our high-level disinfectants, dispensed in portable, easy-to-use formats of foam, wipes and sprays, are the only way in which these new frontier devices can be disinfected safely in a community clinic in a remote area to the same level that would be demanded in a sophisticated Western European hospital.

"MODT is at the forefront of this exciting development in healthcare, and has had the foresight to acknowledge the importance of disinfection. With its focus on women's health, a key area for Tristel, we are making this investment to cement our relationship. MODT plans next to make its technology platform available to Ear, Nose and Throat medicine (ENT), another stronghold for our Company. Oropharyngeal cancers are one of the fastest growing types, and are linked to HPV infection.

"We believe our participation in the ownership of MODT will not only benefit Tristel strategically, but will also produce an attractive return for our own shareholders in time. We take great comfort in investing alongside the leading healthcare investor, Orbimed."

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