Announcement
Epistem Holdings plc : Funding award from US Department of Defense
RNS Number : 6988S
Epistem Holdings plc
21 March 2016
RNS Press Release
For release: 21 March 2016
Award of Funding for Next Stage of US Department of Defense Programme
to Develop Genedrive® Biohazard Identification Tests
Epistem Holdings Plc (LSE: EHP), the molecular diagnostics, personalised medicine and biotechnology company, announces today that the US Department of Defense has awarded $2.9m in funding for the next phase of Epistem's programme to develop a handheld Genedrive® test for biohazard identification.
In August 2015, Epistem announced the first $2.4m phase of the $7.8m programme with the US Department of Defense for the development and manufacture of Genedrive® as a biohazard identification system. The second phase announced today was triggered by successful progress to date and is expected to be largely undertaken during the financial year 2016/17.
David Budd, CEO of Epistem, commented "Today's announcement is a recognition of our team's expertise in developing new assays and marks a further important validation of Genedrive®'s potential as a highly versatile molecular diagnostic system which can be used outside a central lab setting. The US Department of Defense programme funding increases our overall development capability and our ability to develop Genedrive® to realise its full potential."
- Ends -
For further details please contact:
Epistem Holdings Plc
David Budd: CEO +44 (0)161 606 7258
John Rylands: Finance Director
Peel Hunt LLP
James Steel +44 (0)207 418 8900
Tom Burt
Oliver Jackson
Consilium Strategic Communications
Chris Gardner +44 (0)203 709 5700
Laura Thornton
Notes to Editors
Epistem is a personalised medicine and biotechnology company developing innovative molecular diagnostics and biomarkers alongside providing contract research services to drug development companies. Epistem's Genedrive® is a next-generation Point of Care molecular diagnostic system providing a low cost, rapid, versatile, simple to use and robust diagnostics platform for the diagnosis of infectious diseases and for use in patient stratification (genotyping), pathogen detection and other indications. Genedrive® aims to provide a 'gold standard' identification of Tuberculosis & antibiotic resistance. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has publicly recommended that nations incorporate new rapid and molecular tests for Tuberculosis into their disease testing programs. The Genedrive® platform and its first Tuberculosis test is now being prepared for launch in India and the Indian sub-continent. Further details can be found at: www.epistem.co.uk and www.genedrive.com
This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END
MSCSESSWFFMSELD
;