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22 Apr 2016 10:45
Premaitha Health plc
("Premaitha" or the "Company")
Update on competitor patent litigation
Manchester, UK - 22 April 2016 - Premaitha Health PLC (AIM: NIPT, "Premaitha" or the "Company"), developer of the leading CE-marked complete non-invasive prenatal screening system, notes that Illumina, Inc. ("Illumina") has announced overnight that it has initiated patent infringement proceedings in Switzerland against Genoma SA, one of Premaitha's customers.
Premaitha continues to believe, as outlined in the announcement issued on 20 April 2016, that the patents held by Illumina are invalid and that, in any event, the IONA® test does not infringe them.
Dr Stephen Little, CEO of Premaitha said: "This lawsuit is another blatant attempt to distract people from Illumina's own travails in Europe and is a continuation of its attempts to restrict competition in the European NIPT market. We believe pregnant women should not be denied choice in their decisions for prenatal care. We will support our customers against such actions and we remain focused on delivering market-leading prenatal screening to patients around the world."
For more information, please contact:
Premaitha Health plc | Tel: +44 (0) 161 667 6865 |
Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive Office |
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Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer Joanne Cross, Head of Marketing |
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investors@premaitha.com |
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Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (Nomad) | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7148 7900 |
Liam Murray |
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Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Joint Broker) | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500 |
Robert Naylor (Corporate Finance) / Maisie Rose Atkinson (Sales) |
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finnCap (Joint Broker) | 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 |
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premaitha@vigocomms.com |
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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.
Premaitha is based in Manchester Science Partnerships, United Kingdom and 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.
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