14th Dec 2015 09:09
LONDON (Alliance News) - Premaitha Health PLC on Monday said it remains "very confident" in its overall prospects, as it reported a flat pretax loss for its first half and as Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc agreed to invest GBP5 million in Premaitha.
For the half year to end-September Premaitha reported a pretax loss of GBP4.4 million, flat compared to the seven months to end-September in the previous year, as a rise in revenue to GBP624,988 from GBP83,506 was offset by a GBP1.4 million litigation provision, while GBP1.6 million in reverse acquisition costs did not recur.
Revenue came from early sales of the company's IONA pre-natal test, which the company introduced into several countries during the period.
Premaitha is currently battling a patent infringement case filled against it by Illumina Inc in regards to the IONA test, which it said "remains a distraction" to the company and to customers, and has "inevitably slowed decision-making". However, it said it was pleased "to see that customers are seeing through this opportunistic attempt of a non-CE marked competitor to slow us down and are continuing to sign up to our superior offering."
The IONA test runs on Thermo Fisher's two sequencing instruments, the Ion Proton and Ion Chef. Thermo Fisher will invest GBP5 million in the form of a secured-loan facility, of which GBP3 million will be received at the outset with further milestone payments expected over the next two years.
Premaitha will issue warrants to Thermo Fisher over 20.3 million new shares with an exercise price of 24.6 pence per share, representing around 8.2% of the company's enlarged issued share capital.
Shares in Premaitha were down 3.0% at 20.01 pence Monday morning.
"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," said Chief Executive Officer Stephen Little in a statement.
By Hana Stewart-Smith; [email protected]; @HanaSSAllNews
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