2 Mar 2017 11:03
Premaitha Health plc
("Premaitha" or the "Company")
Directorate Change, Completion of Yourgene Acquisition and Admission of Shares
Manchester, UK - 2 March 2017: Premaitha Health plc (AIM: NIPT), a leading international molecular diagnostics group, announces that following the admission of 76,054,570 ordinary shares this morning the acquisition of Yourgene Bioscience Co., Ltd ("Yourgene") has become unconditional and has therefore been completed.
Consequently, Dr Bill Chang and Alan Chang have been appointed to the Board of Premaitha as Chief Scientific Officer and Non-executive Director respectively.
As previously announced on 21 December 2016, Dr Bill Chang has a PhD in bioinformatics from the University of Melbourne and developed Yourgene's non-invasive prenatal testing algorithm (patent granted to Yourgene in Taiwan). Dr Bill Chang owned 59.5% of Yourgene and therefore owns 14.09% of Premaitha following completion of the acquisition.
Alan Chang acts as Yourgene's in-house legal counsel. Alan Chang has significant commercial and intellectual property experience, has an MSc in the Management of Intellectual Property from the University of London, and was Senior Counsel at Hon Hai Group from 2004 to 2009, leading a team of 75 professionals, including 12 lawyers and 63 patent agents and intellectual property engineers.
Dr Bill Chang holds 45,252,469 ordinary shares in the Company and has been issued with options over 300,000 ordinary shares in the Company at an exercise price of 10 pence per share. The options are exercisable in six tranches and are subject to certain performance conditions. Two tranches are exercisable in respect of each of the years ending 31 March 2019, 31 March 2020 and 31 March 2021 with the options being exercisable up to 1 December 2026. Mr Alan Chang holds 3,802,729 ordinary shares in the Company.
Dr Bill Chang
Pursuant to Rule 17 and Schedule Two (g) of the AIM Rules, the following information is disclosed in respect of Dr Chia-Han Chan (also known as Dr Bill Chang) (aged 41):
Current Appointments | Appointments in the last 5 years |
Yourgene Bioscience Co., Ltd | Sofiva Genomics Co. Ltd |
Cambridge Genomics Corporation | Yourgene Biosciences Australia Pty Ltd |
Kang Qiao Bioscience Ltd | |
Yourgene Bioscience Singapore PTE. Ltd | |
There is no other information regarding Dr Chia-Han Chan required to be disclosed under the AIM Rules.
Alan Chang
Pursuant to Rule 17 and Schedule Two (g) of the AIM Rules, the following information is disclosed in respect of Mr Chia-Hsiang Chang (also known as Mr Alan Chang) (aged 48):
Current Appointments | Appointments in the last 5 years |
Fortune Advanced Technology Co. Ltd | |
Alto Memory Technology Corporation | |
ACA International Consulting Ltd. | |
Kaba Shida Co. Ltd. |
There is no other information regarding Mr Chia-Hsiang Chang required to be disclosed under the AIM Rules.
For more information, please contact:
Premaitha Health plc | Tel: +44 (0) 161 667 6865 |
Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive Officer |
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Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer |
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investors@premaitha.com |
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Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad) | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7213 0880 |
Liam Murray / Jo Turner |
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finnCap | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson (Corporate Finance) |
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Tony Quirke (Corporate Broking) |
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Vigo Communications | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7830 9700 |
Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia Pollock |
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premaitha@vigocomms.com |
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About Premaitha
Premaitha is an international molecular diagnostics group which uses the latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop safer, faster and regulatory approved genetic screening tests. The Group's primary focus is on non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for pregnant women - an emerging, multi-billion dollar global market.
Premaitha's IONA® test was launched in 2015 as the first CE-IVD NIPT test in Europe. It enables laboratories and healthcare practitioners to offer a complete CE-marked NIPT system in-house. The IONA® test is performed on a maternal blood sample - which contains traces of fetal DNA - and estimates the risk of a fetus being affected with Down's syndrome or other genetic conditions.
Unlike existing prenatal screening methods, due to its high level of accuracy, the IONA® test can significantly reduce the number of women subjected to unnecessary invasive follow up diagnostic procedures, such as amniocentesis, which are costly, resource intensive and carry a risk of miscarriage.
In March 2017, Premaitha acquired Yourgene Bioscience, a specialist next generation sequencing and bioinformatics company based in Taiwan, with its own NIPT screening test that operates on the same Thermo Fisher next-generation sequencing platform as Premaitha's IONA® test. Yourgene brings significant benefits to the Group through expanded market access in Asia - the world's fastest growing NIPT market - as well as opportunities for cross-selling and the ability to jointly develop expanded test content both within NIPT and beyond.
Premaitha is headquartered in Manchester, England, with Yourgene offices in Taipei and Singapore. Its shares trade on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: NIPT). For further information, please visit www.premaitha.com. Follow us on twitter @PremaithaHealth.