Premaitha Health PLC Update on UK patent infringement claim (8424I)
March 26 2018 - 2:00AM
UK Regulatory
TIDMNIPT
RNS Number : 8424I
Premaitha Health PLC
26 March 2018
Premaitha Health plc
("Premaitha" or the "Company")
Update on UK patent infringement claim received in September
2017
Manchester, UK - 26 March 2018: Premaitha Health plc (AIM:
NIPT), a leading international molecular diagnostics group focused
on non-invasive prenatal testing ("NIPT"), provides an update on
the first stage of its UK defence against the new patent
infringement claim, announced on 7 September 2017 ("New UK
Claim").
The New UK Claim from Illumina and Sequenom (the "Claimants")
was filed in September 2017 and alleges that Premaitha's IONA(R)
test infringes European Patent (UK) 1 524 321 82, known as the
"321" patent, as filed by Sequenom in 2003 and as included in a
Pooled Patents Agreement (PPA) entered into between Sequenom and
Illumina in late 2014. The Claimants have also asserted the patent
against other competitors, Ariosa and The Doctors Laboratory
("Ariosa/TDL") (together with Premaitha, the "Defendants"). At a
hearing held in the High Court on 16 March 2018, the judge heard
applications made by the Defendants, that the New UK Claim was an
abuse of the legal process and should be struck out. The Defendants
argued that the abuse arose, in part, because the New UK Claim
could and should have been brought much earlier by the Claimants,
and that this had caused prejudice to the Defendants. No questions
of patent validity or alleged infringement were addressed in the
proceedings.
In assessing abuse of process claims the courts take a broad,
merits--based approach. After considering all the facts in the case
the judge determined that, whilst Illumina and Sequenom ought to
have known in 2015 whether they had a claim against the Defendants
or not, there was no evidence that they did know and nor that they
had deliberately delayed bringing the New UK Claim. The judge also
stated that any additional costs incurred by the Defendants as a
result of the later filing of the New UK Claim could be redressed
at the end of the usual legal process. As a result, the judge
denied the applications from the Defendants to strike out the New
UK Claim.
The written ruling was made public on 23 March 2018, and at a
final order hearing on the same day the judge awarded costs of
approximately GBP50,000 against Premaitha (and also costs against
Ariosa/TDL). The New UK Claim will therefore proceed on a normal
timetable and is expected to come to trial in early 2019.
Dr Stephen Little, CEO of Premaitha Health, commented: "We made
this application in an attempt to minimise any UK business
disruption from the New UK Claim. We are disappointed the judge did
not agree with our arguments and those of the other parties as to
why we feel the claim is an abuse of process, but we remain firmly
of the view that the claim itself can be defended effectively.
Unfortunately, the UK market remains a challenging legal
environment for ourselves and other competitors. Ultimately, the
consequence of these various sets of proceedings may restrict the
choice of NIPT for British women. We are currently reviewing our
options in the UK with new legal advisers and we will update
investors on the next steps alongside our year end trading update
which is expected in April.
"Over the last three years, and from a standing start, Premaitha
has built a significant global business, yet has been hindered in
its domestic market by repeated litigation from Illumina and
Sequenom. As previously stated it is our intention to operate in
territories with maximum opportunity and minimum legal risk and
over the past eighteen months we have successfully executed against
this strategy, which remains our central focus going forward."
This announcement contains inside information for the purposes
of Article 7 of EU Regulation 596/2014.
For more information, please contact:
Premaitha Health PLC Tel: +44 (0)161
Dr Stephen Little, Chief Executive 667 1053
Officer
Barry Hextall, Chief Financial Officer
Joanne Cross, Head of Marketing
investors@premaitha.com
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD) Tel: +44 (0)20
Liam Murray / James Caithie 7213 0880
finnCap (Broker) Tel: +44 (0)20
Adrian Hargrave / Scott Mathieson 7220 0500
(Corporate Finance)
Andrew Burdis / Abigail Wayne (Corporate
Broking)
Vigo Communications Tel: +44 (0)20
Ben Simons / Fiona Henson / Antonia 7830 9700
Pollock
premaitha@vigocomms.com
About Premaitha
Premaitha is an international molecular diagnostics group which
uses the latest advances in DNA analysis technology to develop
safer, faster and regulatory approved genetic screening tests. The
Group's primary focus is on non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT) for
pregnant women - an emerging, multi-billion dollar global
market.
Premaitha's IONA(R) test was launched in 2015 as the first
CE-IVD NIPT test in Europe. It enables laboratories and healthcare
practitioners to offer a complete CE-marked NIPT system in-house.
The IONA(R) test is performed on a maternal blood sample - which
contains traces of fetal DNA - and estimates the risk of a fetus
being affected with Down's syndrome or other genetic
conditions.
Unlike existing prenatal screening methods, due to its high
level of accuracy, the IONA(R) test can significantly reduce the
number of women subjected to unnecessary invasive follow up
diagnostic procedures, such as amniocentesis, which are costly,
resource intensive and carry a risk of miscarriage.
In March 2017, Premaitha acquired Yourgene Bioscience, a
specialist next generation sequencing and bioinformatics company
based in Taiwan, with its own NIPT screening test that operates on
the same Thermo Fisher next-generation sequencing platform as
Premaitha's IONA(R) test. Yourgene brings significant benefits to
the Group through expanded market access in Asia - the world's
fastest growing NIPT market - as well as opportunities for
cross-selling and the ability to jointly develop expanded test
content both within NIPT and beyond.
Premaitha is headquartered in Manchester, England, with Yourgene
offices in Taipei and Singapore. Its shares trade on the AIM market
of the London Stock Exchange (AIM: NIPT). For further information,
please visit www.premaitha.com. Follow us on twitter
@PremaithaHealth.
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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