Pre-Close Trading Update and Board Changes

RNS Number : 0002V

Epistem Holdings plc

04 August 2015

 



RNS Press Release

For release: 4th August 2015: 07:00 AM

Epistem Holdings Plc

("Epistem" or "the Company")

Pre-Close Trading Update and Board Changes

·     Full year income £4.5m

·     EBITDA losses in line with market expectations

·     GeneDrive® development agreement with US Department of Defense for up to $7.8m

·     Matthew Walls leaves as CEO

·     Dr. Ian Gilham becomes Interim CEO

Epistem (AIM: EHP), the personalised medicine and biotechnology company, today announces its pre-close trading statement for the full year ended 30 June 2015.

Income over the full year was £4.5m, broadly in line with market expectations. EBITDA losses are expected to be £3.8m, in line with market expectations and reflecting the increased expenditure leading up to the launch of the Company's rapid, low cost, simple to use 'Point of Care' device Genedrive®. Net cash at 30 June 2015 was £4.9m (2014: £4.2m). 

The Company is now placing its first Genedrive Tuberculosis products with its Indian distributor as part of Genedrive's introduction to the Indian market. The initial product sales will be used to satisfy 'Key Opinion Leader' (KOL) studies and to build a bank of clinical reference data to support product positioning and entry into the Indian market.

The Company is also pleased to announce 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 (pathogen identification). The US Government programme will provide up to $7.8m (£5.0m) in milestone based funding over five years, divided into two phases with the first phase being worth up to $2.4m (£1.5m) for work scheduled to be completed in the current financial year.

The Company will release its final results for the year ended 30 June 2015 on Wednesday 28 October 2015 and will hold a meeting for analysts on the day.

Board Changes

Epistem also announces today that Matthew Walls is leaving his position as Chief Executive Officer and that Dr. Ian Gilham, Non-Executive Chairman, will act as Chief Executive Officer on an interim basis, with immediate effect.

Dr. Gilham has international experience in the research, development and commercialisation of diagnostic and pharmaceutical products. He is Non-Executive Chairman of a number of UK and European companies including Horizon Discovery Group plc, Multiplicom NV, and Biosurfit SA. Dr. Gilham was formerly Chief Executive of Axis-Shield plc, a FTSE listed global diagnostics company, acquired by Alere in November 2011 for £235 million. He also previously worked at GlaxoSmithKline as Vice President - Pharmacogenetics and before that held international general management, marketing business development and R&D positions with Abbott Laboratories, Celltech and Amersham.

Dr. Ian Gilham, Chairman of Epistem and Interim Chief Executive Officer, said: "The Board would like to thank Matthew for his commitment to Epistem over the past seven years, during which he has been integral to the early development of the Company.  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."

For further information on Epistem plc, please contact:

Epistem plc

Ian Gilham, Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer                       ++44 161 606 7258

John Rylands, Chief Financial Officer

Peel Hunt LLP

James Steel                                                                                                           ++44 207 418 8900

Clare Terlouw

Consilium Strategic Communications

Amber Fennell                                                                                                      ++44 203 709 5701

Matthew Neal

Laura Thornton

Email: [e-mail]

Notes to Editors

Epistem is a personalised medicine and biotechnology company developing innovative diagnostics and biomarkers alongside providing contract research services to drug development companies. Genedrive® provides a major advance in molecular diagnostic testing by providing a rapid, low cost, simple to use 'Point of Care' device with high sensitivity and specificity for the diagnostics of infectious diseases and for use in patient stratification (genotyping). Genedrive® aims to provide a 'gold standard' identification of Tuberculosis & antibiotic resistance. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has publicly recommended that nations incorporate new rapid and molecular tests for Tuberculosis into their disease testing programs. The Genedrive® platform and its first Tuberculosis test is now being prepared for launch in India and the India sub-continent. Further details can be found at: www.epistem.co.uk and www.genedrive.com 

 

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