Premaitha signs investment deal with science giant
PIONEERING medical screening test company Premaitha Health has struck a £5m investment deal with one of the world’s largest scientific groups.
The Mancheste-based firm, which has developed a pioneering non-invasive prenatal screening test called IONA, said its deal with Thermo Fisher Scientific will allow it to roll-out the product to more clinical laboratories across Europe and also boost further product development.
Premaitha’s IONA test already runs on Thermo Fisher’s two sequencing instruments, the Ion Proton and Ion Chef. Thermo Fisher is the world leader in serving science, with revenues of $17bn and approximately 50,000 employees in 50 countries.
The AIM llisted company said: “This investment will enable Premaitha to offer enhanced commercial solutions to clinical laboratories across Europe and other international territories, enabling more pregnant women to access the benefits of NIPT (non-invastive prenatal test). It will also allow the company to deliver and further develop high quality, fully validated non-invasive prenatal screening tests that are designed to reduce costs and improve patient outcomes.
Thermo Fisher will invest £5m in the form of a secured loan facility, with £3m to be received at the outset with further milestone payments expected over the next two years.
Interest will accrue at a rate of 6% per annum payable quarterly in arrears or capable of conversion to loan principal.
Premaitha will issue warrants to Thermo Fisher over 20,325,204 new ordinary shares in the company at an exercise price of 24.6p per share, representing 8.2% of its enlarged issued share capital . The warrants will expire after 8 years.
Dr Stephen Little, chief executive of Premaitha, said: “We have strengthened our relationship with Thermo Fisher as an investor in our business. This investment will enable us to expand our global reach, support our marketing and clinical and technical capabilities. It will also provide future product development opportunities in the rapidly growing non-invasive prenatal testing market.”
Premaitha also published results for the six months to the end of September, which showed a jump in revenues, from £100,000 to £600,000 as a result of early sales of the IONA test.
The company’s loss before one-off and non-cash items was £2.7m (H1 2014: £2.3m) reflecting recruitment of staff, product development and commercialisation activities.
Highlights of the period included an oversubscribed placing which raised £8m.
Stephen Little added: “The first half of our financial year has seen our first four customers go live in three different countries and start to generate revenues with the IONA test.
“We also saw the publication of excellent clinical results and are participating in the world’s first reflex DNA screening project with the prestigious Wolfson Institute. These achievements demonstrate the high quality and clinical relevance we have built into the IONA test, the first CE-marked NIPT product which we launched in February 2015.
“We continue to enhance the test for laboratory efficiency and include clinically-relevant features such as the recently added fetal sex determination option. We remain on course for our target of 10 contract wins this financial year, despite the unpredictable timing inherent in such a complex sales process and the distraction of a non-CE marked competitor’s litigation.”
