23 Sep 2016 08:50
Premaitha Health Plc
("Premaitha" or the "Company")
Investment agreement extension with Thermo Fisher Scientific
Manchester, UK - 23 September 2016 - Premaitha Health PLC (AIM: NIPT), developer of the leading CE-marked complete non-invasive prenatal screening system, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an extension of the investment agreement with Thermo Fisher Scientific ("Thermo Fisher") announced on 14 December 2015, further developing this important relationship.
Thermo Fisher is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $17 billion and approximately 50,000 employees in 50 countries. Premaitha's IONA® test runs on Thermo Fisher's sequencing instruments and the additional investment by Thermo Fisher signifies an acceleration of our combined efforts to make high quality, validated non-invasive prenatal testing solutions widely available to clinical laboratories around the world.
Under the terms of the agreement, Thermo Fisher will make available to Premaitha an additional secured loan facility of £4.0m (the "Loan"), which will be drawn down against future milestones. The new loan facility follows on from the existing facility, announced on 14 December 2015, on similar terms. Specifically, interest on amounts drawn on the Loan will accrue at a rate of 6 per cent per annum payable quarterly in arrears or will be capable of conversion to loan principal. The Loan is repayable on 14 December 2023, with the option to repay sooner.
Under the terms of the Loan, Premaitha will issue Thermo Fisher warrants over 17,094,018 new ordinary shares in the Company exercisable at 11.7 pence ("2016 Warrants"), being a premium of 10% over the closing share price on 21 September 2016 (the last business day prior to issue of the 2016 Warrants). A second tranche of warrants will be issued on 1 April 2017, or earlier if loan drawdowns exceed £2.0m, over new ordinary shares in the Company at a premium of 10% over the closing share price on the last business day prior to the date of issue.
Dr Stephen Little, CEO, commented: "The additional investment by Thermo Fisher, together with the Company's existing liquid resources, enables Premaitha to mount the strongest legal defence against Illumina, while at the same time accelerating complementary product development - such as the validation of the IONA® test on Thermo Fisher's ION S5™ range of instruments.
Validating the IONA® test on the S5 instruments will better align the Company with Thermo Fisher's distribution channels, allowing Premaitha to offer broader availability of the IONA® test in territories outside of Europe. The additional funds will therefore allow Premaitha to continue to invest in building its international commercial capabilities."
The information contained within this announcement constitutes inside information stipulated under the Market Abuse Regulation (EU) No. 596/2014.
-Ends-
For more information, please contact:
| |
Premaitha Health PLCDr Stephen Little, Chief Executive Officer Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer Joanne Cross, Head of Marketing investors@premaitha.com
| Tel: +44 (0) 161 667 1053
|
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD)Liam Murray / James Caithie
| Tel: +44 (0) 20 7148 7900 |
finCap (Broker) Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson (Corporate Finance) Tony Quirke (Corporate Broking)
| Tel: +44 (0) 20 7220 0500 |
Vigo Communications Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia Pollock premaitha@vigocomms.com
| Tel: +44 (0) 20 7830 9704
|
About Premaitha
Premaitha is a molecular diagnostics company which uses the latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop safer, faster and regulatory approved non-invasive screening tests for pregnant women.
Premaitha's lead test - the IONA® test - was launched in February 2015 and is the leading CE marked complete system which estimates the risk of a fetus being affected with Down's syndrome or other genetic conditions. The IONA® test is performed on the mother's blood sample - which contains traces of fetal DNA - and then analysed using next generation DNA sequencing technology from ThermoFisher Scientific.
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 stressful and invasive follow-up diagnostic procedures which are costly, resource intensive and carry a risk of miscarriage.
Non-invasive prenatal screening is an emerging, multi-billion dollar global market and Premaitha's complete CE marked system enables laboratories and health care practitioners to offer an approved, non-invasive prenatal screening system in-house.