NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Premaitha Health today reported a surge in revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31 as the company recorded the first full year of sales of its Iona non-invasive prenatal screening test.
For the 12-month period, Premaitha's revenues, which came primarily from Iona sales but included some non-recurring equipment revenues from one customer, jumped to £2.5 million ($3.2 million) from £132,000 the year before. The firm noted that it has sold more than 17,000 of the tests to customers in the UK and Europe since its launch in February 2015.
Premaitha's net loss for the fiscal year climbed to £12.1 million, or .06 pence a share, from a year-ago loss of £7.4 million, or .05 pence per share.
Contributing to the loss increase was a nearly 87 percent rise in SG&A expenses to £8.4 million from £4.5 million, which included £1.8 million in costs related to Iona sales that were not recorded the year ended March 31, 2015. Also driving up the company's administrative costs was a £5.8 million provision for anticipated costs related to Premaitha's ongoing patent-infringement litigation with Illumina.
In March 2015, Illumina sued Premaitha in a UK court for alleged infringement of prenatal testing-related IP. In a statement issued today, Premaitha Chairman Adam Reynolds called the lawsuit a "significant challenge" for the firm, but said that it is expected to be resolved by the second half of 2017. He added that Premaitha is encouraged by a recently initiated investigation by the European Commission into potentially anticompetitive practices by Illumina and Sequenom regarding their prenatal testing IP.
At the end of March, Premaitha had cash and cash equivalents totaling £5.3 million.