17 Mar 2021 07:00
Yourgene Health plc
("Yourgene" or the "Group" or the "Company")
Appointment of VP of Sales North America
Strategic hire to expand Yourgene's commercial footprint in North America
Manchester, UK - 17 March 2021: Yourgene (AIM: YGEN), the international molecular diagnostics group, announces it has appointed Scott Sargent as Vice President of Sales North America with immediate effect, to support the Group's plans to expand and grow its commercial footprint in the North American market, following the acquisition of Coastal Genomics in August 2020.
Scott brings over 25 years of industry experience, having held senior executive roles at large multinationals, most recently as Director of Sales for Clinical Genomics for QIAGEN in the US and Canada, where he led a commercial team selling into the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), PCR and sample extraction clinical laboratory market. Scott's team grew 2019 NGS library preparation sales by +25% over the previous year and total sales by +6% (to $44M USD) over the previous year. Prior to this, Scott held senior commercial roles at Illumina, where he was responsible for leading business development for the market segments of rare disease and reproductive health testing in the US / Canada. Scott also has managed complex distributor relationships and sold extensively in the PCR clinical market for Luminex Corporation and Roche Diagnostics.
Scott will be responsible for building a North American commercial team and working closely with the Coastal Genomics team to help enable the Ranger Technology to win additional customers across the blue-chip life-science companies, academic research institutes and clinical molecular diagnostic organizations. This innovative and automated sample preparation technology facilitates efficiency and reproducibility across different applications including NIPT, liquid biopsy for cancer detection and disease monitoring, along with routine quality control for NGS workflows.
A key focus for Scott will be to leverage the Group's modular NGS analysis framework, FlexTM Analysis Software, and its size selection technology (Yourgene QS250) to the NIPT and oncology market in North America. The NIPT market is expanding following the recent guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommending NIPT for all pregnant mothers, not just those at high risk.
Commenting, Lyn Rees, CEO of Yourgene, said: "We welcome Scott to the Group at this pivotal time of commercial growth in a key geographic market. Scott's extensive industry experience, network and track record will undoubtedly be an asset to the Group going forward as we progress our expansion in the US diagnostics market, which is the largest in the world."
Yourgene Health plc Lyn Rees, Chief Executive Officer | Tel: +44 (0)161 669 8122 investors@yourgene-health.com | |||
Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer | ||||
Joanne Cross, Director of Marketing | ||||
N+1 Singer (Joint Corporate Broker) | Tel: +44 (0)20 7496 3000 | |||
Aubrey Powell / Tom Salvesen / George Tzimas | ||||
Stifel Nicolaus Europe Limited (Joint Corporate Broker) | Tel: +44 (0)20 7710 7600 | |||
Nicholas Moore / Matthew Blawat / Ben Maddison | ||||
Walbrook PR Ltd (Media and Investor Relations) | Tel: +44 (0)20 7933 8780 or yourgene@walbrookpr.com | |||
Paul McManus / Lianne Cawthorne | Mob: 07980 541 893 / Mob: 07584 391 303 | |||
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About Yourgene Health
Yourgene Health is an international molecular diagnostics group which develops and commercialises genetic products and services. The group works in partnership with global leaders in DNA technology to advance diagnostic science.
Yourgene primarily develops, manufactures, and commercialises simple and accurate molecular diagnostic solutions, for reproductive health, precision medicine and now infectious diseases. The Group's flagship products include non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for Down's Syndrome and other genetic disorders, Cystic Fibrosis screening tests, invasive rapid aneuploidy tests, and a recent extension into the oncology space with DPYD genotyping.
The launch of Yourgene Genomic Services has enabled Yourgene to offer a global laboratory service network equipped to be a full life-cycle partner for clinical, research and pharmaceutical organisations to support partners at the preclinical, clinical, and post-market stages to develop, manufacture, obtain regulatory approval and commercialise new products and services. In addition, Yourgene Genomic Services offers an NIPT and high throughput COVID testing service.
In August 2020, Yourgene acquired Coastal Genomics, Inc., a sample preparation technology company based in Vancouver, Canada, enabling the Company to extend its offering and IP portfolio in the DNA sample preparation sector. The acquisition increased Yourgene's geographical penetration into the US and Canada, supplementing existing coverage in the UK, Europe, MEA and Asia.
Yourgene Health is headquartered in Manchester, UK with offices in Taipei, Singapore, the US and Canada, and is listed on the London Stock Exchange's AIM market under the ticker "YGEN". For more information visit www.yourgene-health.com and follow us on twitter @Yourgene_Health.