Premaitha losses near £5m, but IONA test set for global take-off
BIOTECH company Premaitha, pioneer of a new non-invasive prenatal test for Down’s Syndrome, has revealed losses of nearly £5m incurred during the development of the ground-breaking proceedure.
But the Manchester Science Park-based company remains optimistic about its outlook as the NIPT test, branded IONA appears set for global take off.
Simultaneous with the announcement of its results for the financial year ended March 31 was the unveiling of Premaitha’s first non-European partnership with Chilean company Servicios Genéticos OriGen to provide the IONA test for pregnant women in the South American country.
The IONA test estimates the risk to a fetus being affected by Down’s Syndrome and other serious genetic conditions such as Patau’s Syndrome and Edwards Syndrome by analysing fetal DNA from a sample of maternal blood.
As part of the agreement, OriGen will send maternal blood samples to Premaitha’s UK-based accredited clinical laboratory for analysis using the IONA test, a process which takes just three days. Test results are then to be provided to OriGen directly.
Financial year highlights for Premaitha include the reverse takeover of Vialogy and its AIM listing in July 2014, raising £7.2m via a placing and open offer at 11p per share.
The IONA test launched in February with the first new contracts signed, including St George’s Hospital Trust in London.
Up to £0.5m of Premaitha’s financial resources were consumed by a patent infringement suit lodged by American company Illumina in March, followed by a robust defence and counterclaim filed by Premaitha.
Its loss before one-off and non-cash items was £4.9m compared to a reverse of £1.5m in 2014, reflecting staff costs, product development activities and provision for the litigation.
Post period in July, the company successfully raised £8m with a share placing at 20p per share.
Chairman David Evans said: “The company has achieved a significant amount in a relatively short time. We have listed on AIM, achieved recognition from European regulators for our ground breaking IONA NIPT test and signed contracts in Europe, including the NHS.
“Our success in winning new contracts is despite the threat of litigation, which we will be defending robustly, and high competition in the NIPT space. However, we will not be deterred from entering the right partnerships where we can make available a better screening method to both healthcare providers and expectant parents.
“In the next year, we expect to see further development of our business with a unique world-class product in a very rapidly expanding market with multi-billion dollar global potential.
“We have built up an excellent team across technical, operational and commercial disciplines and we will continue market penetration in close collaboration with key opinion leaders and national screening bodies.”
