Issued on behalf of Premaitha Health plc
Manchester, UK: Friday, 29 Sept 2017
Premaitha Health PLC
(“Premaitha,” the “Company” or the “Group”)
Full year results to 31 March 2017 and half-year trading update
Manchester, UK – 29 September 2017: Premaitha (AIM: NIPT), a leading international molecular diagnostics group focused on non-invasive prenatal testing (“NIPT”), announces its full year results for the twelve months ended 31 March 2017; and provides an update on trading performance in the current financial year to date.
Financial highlights
• Revenues increased by 26% to £3.1m (2016: £2.5m), including one month contribution from Yourgene Bioscience (“Yourgene”), which was acquired in March 2017
– Revenues increased by 48% excluding a non-recurring 2016 equipment sale
• Gross profit increased by 83% to £1.3m (2016: £0.7m)
• Gross margin improved to 42% (2016: 29%) due to benefits of scale and reduced product costs
• General administrative expenses increased by 8% to £7.1m (2016: £6.6m), before separately disclosed exceptional items
• Operating loss reduced by 37% to £7.6m (2016: £12.0m)
• Cash of £1.3m at 31 March 2017 (31 March 2016: £5.3m)
– Additional US$5.0m loan funding secured from Thermo Fisher in July 2017
Operational highlights
• Test volumes increased by 41% to over 24,000 (2016: over 17,000) in second full year since its commercialisation
• Completed the acquisition of Yourgene in March 2017, a significant provider of NIPT in Asia
– Post-period end, in June 2017, Premaitha launched SAGETM, an advanced NIPT analysis solution available through Yourgene, significantly expanding Premaitha’s addressable market
• Successful expansion of geographic footprint, with Premaitha now commanding a significant distribution network across Europe, the Middle East, India and the Far East
• In July 2017, the legal proceedings in connection with the patent infringement suits filed by Illumina were heard in the English High Court – judgment expected in Q4 2017
• Genoma SA, Premaitha’s Swiss customer, was placed into bankruptcy in May 2017 with an outstanding debt to Premaitha of £0.8m
Premaitha is actively pursuing options to recover the debt or equivalent assets
Trading update
• Six month revenues to 30 September 2017 are expected to be up by approximately 75% to £2.6m (H1 2016: £1.5m)
• Test volumes for the first half are expected to be in excess of 22,000, demonstrating significant momentum (H1 2016: 11,000 tests; full year to March 2017: 24,000 tests)
– First half test volumes, excluding Yourgene, are up 140% to c.15,000 tests (H1 2016: 6,000 tests – excluding Genoma)
• Continued geographic diversification, significantly reducing the proportion of revenues from regions with intellectual property exposure
– Recently announced launch into South Africa and the award of Good Manufacturing Practice in Brazil
• Strong focus on achieving positive cashflows through sales ramp-up, implementing cost-per-test efficiencies and overhead cost control
Adam Reynolds, Non-executive Chairman of Premaitha Health, commented:
“I am delighted with the commercial progress made by Premaitha in the last financial year. This is reflected in both growing revenues and increasing test volumes.
“The Company is also making significant strides in its geographic and product diversification strategy which we believe will ensure that, whatever the outcome of the UK intellectual property disputes, Premaitha is developing a business that will succeed in what will inevitably become a huge global market for non-invasive prenatal testing.
“While the UK litigation remains a distraction, Premaitha’s strong technology, growing international commercial footprint, support from Thermo Fisher and dedicated global team, place us extremely well for continued growth. In the current financial year the Company has already delivered some record sales months and has already almost exceeded the total test volumes for the whole of the previous financial year.”
A copy of the 2017 Annual Report and Accounts has been uploaded to the Company’s website at www.premaitha.com.
For shareholders who have opted to received printed copies of the Annual report and Accounts, these are being posted today.
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
For more information, please contact:
Premaitha Health PLC
Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive Officer
Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer
Joanne Cross, Head of Marketing
investors@premaitha.com
Tel: +44 (0)161 667 1053
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD)
Liam Murray / James Caithie
Tel: +44 (0)20 7213 0880
finnCap (Broker)
Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson (Corporate Finance)
Tony Quirke (Corporate Broking)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7220 0500
Vigo Communications
Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia Pollock
premaitha@vigocomms.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 7830 9700
About Premaitha
Premaitha is an international molecular diagnostics group which uses the latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop safer, faster and regulatory approved genetic screening tests. The Group’s primary focus is on non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for pregnant women – an emerging, multi-billion dollar global market.
Premaitha’s IONA® test was launched in 2015 as the first CE-IVD NIPT test in Europe. It enables laboratories and healthcare practitioners to offer a complete CE-marked NIPT system in-house. The IONA® test is performed on a maternal blood sample – which contains traces of fetal DNA – and estimates the risk of a fetus being affected with Down’s syndrome or other genetic conditions.
Unlike existing prenatal screening methods, due to its high level of accuracy, the IONA® test can significantly reduce the number of women subjected to unnecessary invasive follow up diagnostic procedures, such as amniocentesis, which are costly, resource intensive and carry a risk of miscarriage.
In March 2017, Premaitha acquired Yourgene Bioscience, a specialist next generation sequencing and bioinformatics company based in Taiwan, with its own NIPT screening test that operates on the same Thermo Fisher next-generation sequencing platform as Premaitha’s IONA® test. Yourgene brings significant benefits to the Group through expanded market access in Asia – the world’s fastest growing NIPT market – as well as opportunities for cross-selling and the ability to jointly develop expanded test content both within NIPT and beyond.
Premaitha is headquartered in Manchester, England, with Yourgene offices in Taipei and Singapore. Its shares trade on the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: NIPT). For further information, please visit www.premaitha.com. Follow us on twitter @PremaithaHealth.
