TIDMNSCI
NetScientific PLC
16 August 2022
NetScientific plc
("NetScientific", the "Group" or the "Company")
Completion of acquisition of 30% stake in Vortex Biotech
Holdings (Vortex)
and
appointment of new Vortex CEO
To drive commercial opportunities and develop an industry
leading solution
NetScientific plc (AIM: NSCI), the international life sciences
and sustainability technology investment and commercialisation
Group, is pleased to announce, further to its announcement of 6 May
2022, that it completed yesterday its acquisition of a 30 per cent.
stake in Vortex. Additionally, Vortex has recently appointed Paul
Jones as its new Chief Executive Officer.
Vortex is focused on developing its position in the
multi-billion dollar oncology liquid biopsy market, which is
estimated to grow at 14% CAGR by 2030*. Vortex's core technology
allows for the capture and isolation of high quality Circulating
Tumour Cells ("CTCs") from blood samples. Paul will lead Vortex's
growth strategy around this core technology with the aim of
developing it into an industry leading platform that will help
accelerate the translation of research insights into the clinic and
help deliver to an affordable population health agenda.
Paul has previously worked at Illumina, Inc., the global leader
in genome sequencing, where he was the Head of Population Genomics.
He led the team that created, developed and actively managed
large-scale programmes across more than 50 different countries.
Prior to this, Paul was the founding CEO of Genomic Enterprises,
the arm of Genomics England responsible for all commercial aspects
of the 100,000 Genomes Project. Paul has also held roles as
Director and Leader of Global Life Sciences at Cisco and Head of
Global eMarketing & eSales at Novartis. Early in his career he
was a Management Consultant at PwC, focused on life sciences. Paul
completed a Certificate in Private Equity at Imperial College,
London in 2022, an MBA from the University of Sheffield, in 1992,
and an undergraduate degree majoring in physiology in 1989.
NetScientific's completed acquisition of its 30% stake in Vortex
positions the Group well to take advantage of the substantial
upside potential for an innovative technology platform in the
liquid biopsy space. The Vortex multi-phased growth strategy will
include product and cartridge sales; a services lab business
catering to cancer research efforts (both academic and industry);
and in the longer term laboratory developed tests to support key
prognostic, diagnostic, therapy selection and potentially
predictive markers of relevance to everyday clinical practice.
Vortex' VTX-1 platform has been placed and used for KOL
published research in leading University and Research centres in
the US, UK and EU, including UCLA, UC Berkeley, Stanford
University, Ghent University (Belgium), University of Maryland, and
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne. In addition, Vortex is
now seeing growing interest from pharma and biotech clients. The
company has developed several workflow integrations of the VTX-1
instrument with third party instruments, opening further
commercialisation opportunities.
Dr Ilian Iliev, CEO of NetScientific PLC and Chairman of Vortex,
commented: "We are pleased to have completed the acquisition of our
stake in Vortex, and delighted to welcome Paul to the Vortex team.
We are excited by the growth potential of the company in this
rapidly growing and maturing market and see Paul as an integral
part of achieving our ambitious goals. He brings a wealth of
industry experience, which will be invaluable as Vortex develops
its operations. We believe that Vortex offers significant upside
and the ability to commercialise the technology in the US and
Europe will drive significant value."
Paul Jones, CEO of Vortex Biotech Holdings, added: "I've worked
for many years to enable a vision of affordable population health.
Recent developments in liquid biopsy will enable earlier disease
detection, support personalised medicine and allow far easier
ongoing disease monitoring - making this vision a realistic
prospect even in the short term. It is a privilege to be given the
opportunity to lead Vortex and show how we can make a real
difference for patients suffering from cancer across the
world."
For more information, please contact:
NetScientific Via Walbrook PR
Dr. Ilian Iliev, CEO
WH Ireland (NOMAD, Financial Adviser
and Broker)
Chris Fielding / Darshan Patel /
Enzo Aliaj +44 (0)20 7220 1666
Walbrook PR
Nick Rome / Paul McManus 07748 325 236 or 07980 541 893
About NetScientific
NetScientific plc (AIM: NSCI) is a holding company, that invests
in, develops, commercialises and realises shareholder value in life
sciences/healthcare, sustainability and technology companies, which
offer significant growth potential in the UK, Europe and USA, as
well as globally.
Since the adoption of the New Strategy in 2020, the Group has
nearly trebled its portfolio from 8 to 22 companies, either through
subsidiary, direct balance sheet investment or capital under
advisory. NetScientific delivers shareholder returns through a
proactive and hands-on management approach to their portfolio
companies; identifying, investing in, and helping to build
game-changing companies. The Group targets value inflection points
and the release of value through partial or full exits from trade
sales, public listings, or equity sales. The Company has a strong
transatlantic and growing international presence, providing
attractive expansion prospects.
NSCI can deploy a capital-light investment structure; utilising
the power of the PLC Brand, and the NetScientific balance sheet to
anchor future investments and achieve a multiplier effect by
attracting third party investment for the portfolio companies.
NetScientific is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, and
was admitted to trading on AIM, a market operated by the London
Stock Exchange, in 2013 (website: www.netscientific.net ).
About Vortex ( www.vortexbiosciences.com ):
Vortex, which has benefited from c.$38.5 million in historical
investments in the US and Europe, operates commercially at the
junction of the rapidly growing liquid biopsy, cell analytics and
oncology markets. Vortex's mission is to build a platform around
its high-quality Circulating Tumour Cell ("CTC") capture technology
- providing researchers and clinicians access to critical insights
from whole cancer cells that underpin one of the main causes of
metastasis, treatment resistance and disease recurrence.
Originally a spin-out from University of California, Los
Angeles, Vortex is now dually based in the UK and the Bay Area, US,
with a growing international customer base using its automated
VTX-1 instrument and associated cartridges. The company has an
innovative "no touch" microfluidic chip technology which captures
high quality, viable CTCs from blood with very high yields. This
can then provide input to further downstream molecular analysis
ultimately informing patient access to therapy and monitoring. The
company's development is taking place in a growing market. To
capitalise on these opportunities the company plans to execute a
transformative fundraising.
*Footnote:
Liquid Biopsy Market Size Worth USD 26.2bn bn by 2030 at 14.%
CAGR - Report by Precedence Research. Dec 14(th) , 2021 |
Source:
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2021/12/14/2351913/0/en/Liquid-Biopsy-Market-Size-to-Hit-US-26-2-Billion-by-2030.html#::text=According%20to%20Precedence%20Research,
%20the,14%25%20from%202021%20to%202030
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