27th Jun 2005 10:10
Medical Solutions PLC27 June 2005 Medical Solutions plc ("Medical Solutions or the Group") Annual General Meeting Sir Gareth Roberts, Chairman of Medical Solutions plc made the followingstatement at the 2005 Annual General Meeting earlier today: "After a disappointing year in 2004, the Board has implemented a range ofinitiatives to improve the Group's financial performance. Management is focusedon the development of those areas of the business capable of building value andscalable growth over the medium term. In the short term, the need to reducecosts, increase sales and maximise cash have been key priorities. The Board issignificantly encouraged by the progress towards these goals in the year todate. In our Drug Development Services division, we have announced a significant dealwith AstraZeneca worth £300,000 in the area of high throughput quantitativeprotein expression. We have also signed a number of smaller agreements withother pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. The business development andoperational management teams in this area have been strengthened. As managementhas sought to reduce fixed costs, relationships with non-essential tissue bankshave been restructured or terminated with no impact upon customers. The Group's Liquid Based Cytology ("LBC") division has delivered new agreementswith the Lancashire & Cumbria Strategic Health Authority and the North East,Yorkshire and Humber regions during 2005 to supply LBC reagents over a five yearperiod. The total value of agreements signed in 2005 is expected to be around£6.3 million over a five year period on a full run rate basis. We remainconfident of further LBC contract wins. We have signed an exclusive LBCdistributor agreement for the UK and Ireland with Tripath Inc, extending theoriginal agreement for a further three years until 31 December 2008. In the UK Diagnostic Pathology business, the Board has decided to consolidateits operations in Nottingham and will be transferring its Harley Street businessto Nottingham during July. This will involve the relocation of certain key staffand/or recruitment of additional staff in Nottingham together with the closureof the Harley Street site. Regrettably, the Group expects that approximately10-12 staff will be made redundant as a result. The Board expects that such amove will generate significant annualised cost savings without any detrimentalimpact upon customer service. In Dubai, the DML and SCL acquisitions are being integrated into the businessand both have been earnings enhancing during the year to date. The performanceof the Welcare/HSL business remains in line with expectations. The Board hasdecided not to consolidate all of its businesses onto a single site at thisstage, but will be taking an administrative office on the Dubai Healthcare Citysite to establish a strategic position. During May we announced the sale of certain intellectual property assets in thearea of virtual microscopy to Hamamatsu Photonics KK ("Hamamatsu") for £450,000.We have retained a non-exclusive licence, at no cost, to continue to utilise theintellectual property within the Drug Development Services division. Management remain focused on cost reductions across the Group. Headcount in theUK has been reduced by approximately 16% since 31 December 2004, before theimpact of the Harley Street closure. The Board believes that good progress has already been made towards the Group'sstrategic goals and looks forward to updating shareholders further following therelease of our interim results for the six months ending 30 June 2005." Note: all figures are unaudited. For further information: Medical SolutionsCharles Green/Neil Johnston 0115 973 9010 Bell PottingerGeoff Callow/Chris Hamilton 020 7861 3232 Notes to Editors Medical Solutions is a provider of pathology-based products and services to thehealthcare and pharmaceutical sector with advanced technology in image analysis,virtual microscopy and high throughput quantitative protein expression andbiomarker determination. The Group has operations in the UK and Dubai. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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