POLARTECHNICS RENEWS TRUSCREEN DELIVERY TO CHINA, INDIA
December 14th 2008 21:19
Wednesday December 10, 2008
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* POLARTECHNICS RENEWS TRUSCREEN DELIVERY TO CHINA, INDIA
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* SAFETY MEDICAL EXTENDS TRADING HALT TO SUSPENSION
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POLARTECHNICS
Polartechnics says it has re-commenced the delivery of its Truscreen cervical cancer screening units to China and India, worth $400,000 in revenue for December 2008.
The company said the deliveries follow the company’s announcement that it had entered into major sales and supply contracts for Truscreen.
Chinese production of the sensors began in March 2008, with production increasing until quality issues arose (see Biotech Daily; August 14, 2008).
Polartechnics said at that time it had identified the causes of the quality issues, which included unacceptable variations in the lens component during plastic injection moulding in China and dust contamination of the lens during transport and handling to and from the US for specialized coatings.
The company said the processing procedures were revised and it was “only three months behind our original plan”.
At the company’s annual general meeting Polartechnics’ chairman Robert Hunter projected sales growth from $6.8 million in 2009 to $67 million in 2010 and $151 million in 2011 (see Biotech Daily; November 25, 2008).
Polartechnics said that of the 100 screening units being shipped in December, 50 were going to the China Women’s Doctor Association’s screening program across China, with 50 going to India.
Polartechnics chief executive officer Ben Dillon told Biotech Daily that each screening unit was expected to conduct 3,000 tests, implying further sales of 300,000 consumables a year from the sale of the units.
Mr Hunter said in a media release to the ASX that the company was “on-track to deliver our projected sales for the 2008- 2009 financial year and expect to become profitable in 2010” on the basis of contracts with subsidiaries China’s Unisplendour Group.
In November the company’s Truscreen consumable production reached over 1000 units a day on successive days and is programmed for scalable growth.
Polartechnics said production followed “an extensive manufacturing validation exercise to address production issues post start-up earlier this year and has lifted Polartechnics’ confidence in meeting the 2009 targets”.
The China production is planned to meet Truscreen consumable demand through to mid 2009 when additional large scale manufacturing commences.
“We are now gaining a sustainable delivery pipeline following the signing of scalable supply contracts in China, Malaysia and Poland to satisfy the demand we are now seeing for our state of the art products,” Mr Hunter said.
Truscreen will deliver 77 percent of the company’s revenue in 2009 and lead the group to profitability with its signed contract for the supply of 450 Truscreen screening units in a range of hospitals across China in 2009.
Polartechnics said its China contracts were expected to generate recurring sales of $10 million a year in consumables, based upon the installed hospital user base being established in 2009, making the company cash flow positive with the revenue expected to be matched by other markets, including India, Korea and Eastern Europe.
“Private medical clinics across Europe and Asia are seeking real-time point of care screening and triage for cervical cancer, which we can deliver through Truscreen,” Mr Hunter said.
Polartechnics is also developing Cerviscreen, a self-sampling device for human papillomavirus and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Polartechnics climbed as much as 40 percent to 10.5 cents before closing up 1.9 cents or 25.33 percent to 9.4 cents with 728,000 shares traded.
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