Premaitha rockets by almost 50% after legal dispute settled

19th Sep 2018 16:33

(Sharecast News) - Molecular diagnostics outfit Premaitha Health saw its shares rocket after it entered into a legal settlement and a licence-and-supply partnership agreement with Illumina on Wednesday.The settlement, which will see Premaitha make a series of settlement payments to Illumina amounting to no more than £1m, resolved a patent infringement dispute between the two companies over a non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) technology.Lyn Rees, chief executive of Premaitha, said: "These agreements mark the end of a three-and-a-half-year intellectual property dispute and the beginning of a new era whereby the group, working with Illumina, has the ability to provide NIPT to meet rapidly growing global demand."The AIM traded company will now develop an IONA test that runs on Illumina's sequencing technology before working with its customers in licensed territories to migrate to the test.Premaitha will also pay Illumina a royalty per sample tested using the IONA test."Our partnership with Illumina will allow us to move forward and to enter new markets with significant commercial potential. This opens up a much larger addressable market to Premaitha and establishes a new and advanced technological partnership for the IONA test for NIPT," said Rees.Premaitha's shares were up 48.00% at 14.00p at 1636 BST.