Premaitha Health PLC
(“Premaitha,” the “Company” or the “Group”)
Full year results to 31 March 2018 and half-year trading update
Manchester, UK – 28 September 2018: Premaitha (AIM: NIPT), a leading international molecular diagnostics group, announces its full year results for the twelve months ended 31 March 2018; and provides an update on trading in the current financial year to date.
Financial highlights
● Revenues increased by 100% to £6.15m (2017: £3.08m), including the first full year of contribution from Yourgene Bioscience (“Yourgene”), which was acquired in March 2017
○ Revenues increased by 35% on a like-for-like basis
● Gross profit increased by 250% to £3.17m (2017: £1.28m)
● Gross margin improved 10 points to 52% (2017: 42%) due to benefits of scale, geographic mix and reduced product costs
● General administrative expenses increased 27% to £8.96m (2017: £7.08m), due to the full year inclusion of Yourgene
○ Total administrative expenses £11.80m (2017: £8.89m) after litigation expenses, share-based payments and acquisition costs
● Operating loss before litigation expenses reduced by 18% to £5.91m (2017 loss: £7.22m)
○ Operating loss after litigation expenses increased to £8.60m (2017: £7.60m)
○ Litigation settled post year end as announced on 19 September 2018
● Cash of £0.28m at 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: £1.30m)
○ Additional £3.0m equity raised in May 2018
○ £2.0m loan funding secured from Thermo Fisher in February 2018
○ Further £2.5m raise announced today
Operational highlights
● IONA® test volumes increased by 108% to 50,000 (2017: 24,000)
● Successfully expanded footprint, with strong contract momentum, including in new territories in Asia, the Middle East and Africa
● Launch of Sage™ by Yourgene, a cost-effective, flexible non-invasive prenatal testing (“NIPT”) solution incorporating additional prenatal screening analysis tools
● Post period-end:
○ Signed agreement with clinical laboratory group in India to provide a bespoke, high quality and scalable NIPT solution to the Indian market
○ Appointed Mr Lyn Rees as Chief Executive Officer of the Group
○ Premaitha announced a legal settlement and licence agreement (the “Agreements”) with Illumina, resolving the current NIPT patent infringement litigation
○ Appointment of Hayden Jeffreys to a senior commercial role within the Group
Trading update
●Six month revenues to 30 September 2018 expected to be up approximately 40% to £3.8m (H1 2017: £2.6m)
● Test volumes for the first half are expected to be in excess of 34,000 (H1 2017: 22,000), demonstrating significant momentum
● Continue to expand geographic footprint, securing agreements in Kenya and India in the first six months
● Settlement agreements signed with Illumina removes the litigation overhang from the business and opens up a significantly larger addressable market for a multi-partner business model
Adam Reynolds, Non-executive Chairman of Premaitha Health, commented:
“I am delighted with the strategic and commercial progress that we have achieved in the period, having doubled revenues, increased gross profit by 250%, and continued our significant geographic expansion.
“Previously, the litigation has detracted from this progress, but the partnership agreement secured post period-end with Illumina, means that we are now free to operate globally in the NIPT market, and can fully focus on growing the business. We now have the optimal team in place and are extremely well-positioned to execute on our growth strategy in order to capitalise on the opportunity that exists for Premaitha both in the rapidly expanding market for NIPT, and beyond.”
A copy of the 2018 Annual Report and Accounts has been uploaded to the Company’s website at https://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
Lyn Rees, 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)
Geoff Nash / Matthew Radley (Corporate Finance)
Tim Redfern (Corporate Broking)
Tel: +44 (0)20 7220 0500
Vigo Communications
Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia Pollock
premaitha@vigocomms.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 7390 0234
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 current primary focus is on non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for pregnant women – an emerging, multi-billion dollar global market – although the Group intends to expand its product range into other areas of clinical genetics.
Premaitha’s first product, the 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 solution 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.
From May 2018, the Group will trade as Yourgene Health outside of Europe (but remaining as Yourgene Bioscience in Taiwan) reflecting the increased scope of the business in other areas of clinical genetics further to reproductive health; but will maintain the Premaitha Health brand within Europe.
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.
