Polish partnership for Premaitha

PREMAITHA Health has struck a partnership deal with Polish company Centrum Badan DNA over the Manchester company’s ground-breaking non-invasive prenatal screening test (NIPT).

The companies will work closely together as they establish Centrum Baden as Premaitha’s preferred partner laboratory in Poland.

The CE-marked in vitro diagnostic (IVD) the IONA test enables genetic laboratories such as Centrum Baden to offer NIPT in-house.

It uses next-generation sequencing technology to estimate the risk of a fetus having serious genetic disorders such as Down’s syndrome (Trisomy21), Edwards’ syndrome (Trisomy 18), and Patau’s syndrome (Trisomy 13) by analysing cell-free fetal DNA from a sample of maternal blood.

The IONA test has a higher detection rate and lower false positive rate than the current combined test available to pregnant women in Poland.

This follows Premaitha’s £1m deal for the IONA test at St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South London.

Chief executive of Premaitha Dr Stephen Little said: “We have selected Centrum Badan as our preferred collaborator in Poland due to the company’s technical next-generation sequencing expertise and its close network of obstetricians and clinicians.
 
“This collaboration is another fantastic endorsement of our IONA test following so soon after our recent contract wins in Switzerland with Genoma and in the UK with St George’s NHS Foundation Trust. We are very pleased with the progress we are making across Europe to bring NIPT to pregnant women.”

Chief executive of Centrum Badan Jacek Wojciechowicz said: “In our opinion, the IONA test is superior over other tests due to the complete workflow package from DNA extraction through to analysis software and reporting.

“Premaitha’s test also offers the highest accuracy and reliability with results available to clinicians in just three days.”