18 May 2021 07:00
Yourgene Health plc
("Yourgene" or the "Group" or the "Company")
Launch of IONA® Care NIPT service offering
Extended clinical menu to screen SCAs and AAs for pregnant women
Manchester, UK - 18 May 2021: Yourgene (AIM: YGEN), the international molecular diagnostics group, announces the launch of IONA® Care, a non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) service offering, with an extended clinical menu measuring the likelihood that a pregnant woman is carrying a fetus with sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCA1) and autosomal aneuploidies (AA2), in addition to the current IONA® test which offers screening for trisomies 21, 18 and 13 and fetal sex determination.
The IONA® Care test is carried out on a small maternal blood sample and is performed using the CE-marked IONA® Nx NIPT workflow, that utilises next generation sequencing (NGS), at the Company's Manchester Citylabs 1.0 via Yourgene Genomics Services. This additional clinical menu is now available as a service offering, primarily aimed at the private clinic testing market primarily in the UK, but also with customers in the Middle East and Turkey. It provides a competitive high quality offering due to the fast turnaround time, enabling some results to be turned around in as fast as two days, with more than 80% of patients receiving results within three days.
This week, Yourgene is running a series of webinars aimed at existing healthcare professionals on the IONA® Care test to educate them on the extended clinical offering which can be presented to pregnant mothers. In addition, we will be inviting new customers to join our webinars to learn more about how IONA® Care can give a competitive service for clinics and healthcare providers looking to expand their NIPT offering.
Lyn Rees, CEO of Yourgene Health, commented: "We are thrilled to launch IONA® Care, an extension of our IONA advanced prenatal screening service, which builds on the reliability and accuracy of our in-house NIPT service offering, providing pregnant women with more choice. The enhanced clinical offering is optional, enabling the Company to be more competitive within the NIPT market and we look forward to updating shareholders on our progress."
1 - Sex chromosome aneuploidies (SCA) occur when there are changes in the expected number of chromosomes associated with sex determination, the X and Y Chromosome
2 - Autosomal aneuploidies (AA) refers to all the additional trisomies (the presence of an extra chromosome) or monosomies (having a single chromosome instead of a pair)
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.