Premaitha secures £600K deal for IONA in Middle East
Manchester biotech company Premaitha Health has announced further expansion of its Middle Eastern customer base for its non-invasive prenatal test (NIPT) IONA, predicting its latest deal with generate £600,000.
Premaitha’s distributors in the region have secured four new laboratories seeking to offer the IONA test, which detects Down’s syndrome and other genetic disorders in unborn children.
Two of the laboratories will be installed before the end of 2017 and the other two will become operational in early 2018.
Premaitha anticipates these four laboratories will perform an aggregate volume of over 12,000 NIPT tests per year once they are fully active.
The test is performed on a maternal blood sample, containing traces of fetal DNA, which is then analysed using next generation DNA sequencing technology.
It is highly accurate and significantly reduces the number of women who are unnecessarily subjected to risky, invasive follow up procedures to diagnose Down’s syndrome and other genetic conditions.
Chief executive Dr Stephen Little said: “We have put considerable effort into selecting high quality distributors who are knowledgeable in our field, and working with them to build awareness of NIPT and to develop effective propositions tailored to their markets’ particular needs.
“I am very happy to see this investment bearing fruit as we continue to expand our presence within the Middle East.
“Furthermore, Premaitha’s growing international customer base will, in time, provide a valuable commercial platform across which to sell other diagnostic panels that we are currently developing.”
Premaitha last week suffered a legal setback in a patent infringement battle with US company Illumina Inc but is restricted to the UK.
A High Court ruling delivered on November 21 deemed the IONA test infringed the company Illumina Inc’s patent in “certain respects”.
The listed company is now seeking leave to appeal the judgement.
