Premaitha Health builds customer base in Southern Europe

7th Feb 2017 15:38

(ShareCast News) - Non-invasive prenatal screening system developer Premaitha Health announced a number of new customers through its distribution network in Southern Europe on Tuesday.The AIM-traded company confirmed its Italian distributor won a public hospital tender to implement the first public non-invasive prenatal testing programme in southern Italy.It said the hospital will act as a regional hub and is expected to be ready for processing routine samples using the IONA test in early Q2 2017.In addition, a second Italian laboratory completed the installation phase and has begun processing small volumes of the IONA test in Rome, with the potential to ramp up as awareness of the availability of NIPT further permeates the Italian healthcare system, the board claimed.Premaitha also confirmed its distributor for Greece signed a contract to establish the IONA test in a laboratory in northern Greece, which will act as a hub for processing samples from around Greece and the Balkans.The customer has been channelling NIPT samples to another European service provider and as such already has established a network of feeder clinics.It said the laboratory is expected to be operational with the IONA test by the end of Q1 2017.Premaitha said it also won a new service-laboratory customer in Turkey, sending samples for processing in the company's own laboratory in Manchester.Volumes for that new territory were expected to be small initially with substantial scope for growth in this emerging NIPT market."We are working hard to establish a network of like-minded distribution partners," said CEO Stephen Little."The IONA test is designed specifically to support the dissemination of genetic testing, and we are now seeing real evidence of this happening in Europe."