8 Jan 2016 12:40
Premaitha Health PLC
Update on competitor patent litigation
Manchester, UK - 8 January 2016 - Premaitha Health PLC (AIM: NIPT, "Premaitha" or the "Company"), developer of the IONA® test, the first CE-marked non-invasive prenatal (NIPT) in vitro diagnostic kit, notes that Illumina, Inc. has today announced two patent infringement suits in Europe, one of which is against Premaitha's customer in Poland. Illumina has also today taken similar action against Ariosa Diagnostics, a subsidiary of Roche, and their customer, The Doctors Laboratory, in the UK.
Premaitha continues to make a robust defence against earlier claims by Illumina and the Board is confident that the IONA® test does not infringe the patents as claimed in the earlier cases or in relation to today's announcement.
Dr Stephen Little, CEO of Premaitha said: "These lawsuits are a continuation of attempts by Illumina to restrict competition in the European NIPT market. We believe pregnant women should not be denied choice in their decisions for prenatal care. Despite these distractions, we have made strong progress with our best-in-class IONA® test. We will support our customers against such actions and we look forward to announcing new contract wins in new international territories in the near future."
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For more information, please contact: |
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Premaitha Health PLCDr Stephen Little, Chief Executive OfficerJoanne Cross, Head of Marketing | Tel: +44 (0) 161 667 1053investors@premaitha.com
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Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD)Liam Murray / Avi Robinson | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7148 7900 |
Panmure Gordon (UK) Limited (Broker)Robert Naylor (Corporate Finance) /Maisie Atkinson (Sales) | Tel: +44 (0) 20 7886 2500
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Instinctif Partners (Media)Melanie Toyne Sewell / Jayne Crook / Jen Lewis | Tel: +44 (0) 207 457 2020 premaitha@instinctif.com |
About Premaitha Health
Premaitha is an innovative molecular diagnostics company employing the latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop tests for non-invasive prenatal screening (NIPT) and other applications. Premaitha's flagship product, the IONA® test is the first non-invasive in vitro diagnostic product for prenatal screening enabling clinical laboratories to offer CE-marked NIPT in-house for the first time.
The IONA® test estimates the risk of a fetus having Down's syndrome or other serious genetic diseases. The IONA® test has a higher detection rate and lower false positive rate than existing screening tests, giving pregnant women, their families and their doctors greater confidence in the result and reducing the need for unnecessary invasive follow-up tests and the associated anxiety and stress. The IONA® test is a complete diagnostic system that is simple and standardised, enabling Premaitha's clinical laboratory customers to perform the test in their own facilities. This supports Premaitha's strategy of accelerating the broad dissemination of NIPT tests to ensure that their benefits are available to pregnant women everywhere.
Premaitha is listed on the London Stock Exchange (AIM). Its R&D, manufacturing and commercial operation is located at Manchester Science Park, UK. For further information please visit www.premaitha.com or email iona@premaitha.com