4th Aug 2015 07:59
LONDON (Alliance News) - Epistem Holdings PLC Tuesday its income in its recently-ended financial year was in line with market expectations and said it expects earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation losses to also be in line with expectations, as Chief Executive Matthew Walls steps down.
The personalised medicine and biotechnology company said that income in the year to June 30 was GBP4.5 million, while it expects Ebitda losses to be GBP3.8 million as a result of the increased expenditure leading up to the launch of the company's point-of-care device Genedrive.
Epistem said it is now placing its first Genedrive Tuberculosis products with its Indian distributor as part of Genedrive's introduction into the Indian market, and it also has signed an agreement with the US Department of Defense for the development and manufacture of Genedrive as a 'joint handheld bio-agent identifier' for the identification of biological warfare agents.
The US government programme will provide up to USD7.8 million in milestone-based funding over five years, divided into two phases with the first phase being worth up to USD2.4 million for work scheduled to be completed in the current financial year, Epistem said.
Meanwhile, Epistem said that Chief Executive Walls has resigned and will be replaced by Chairman Ian Gilham on an interim basis with immediate effect.
"Epistem is at an exciting stage in its development, where its unique molecular diagnostic device Genedrive and tuberculosis test is with KOL's for commercial launch in India, its initial first target market, with additional tests approaching validation. The board looks forward to updating shareholders, in due course, on the process of selecting a high calibre and commercially experienced successor to Matthew," Gilham said in a statement.
Shares in Epistem were untraded on Tuesday morning, last trading at 216.75 pence.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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