ProAxsis Limited (www.proaxsis.com), the Belfast-based diagnostics company specialising in the measurement of active proteases and other inflammatory biomarkers, today announces a significant change to its investor base.

Netscientific, who previously held a 56.4% equity share of ProAxsis, have taken full control of the company through acquisition of all the remaining shares via the execution of private purchasing agreements with QUBIS Limited, the commercialisation arm of Queen’s University Belfast and the two company co-founders.  In parallel, the key patent associated with the ProteaseTag® technology has been assigned to ProAxsis.

Dr. Ilian Iliev, Chief Executive Officer of NetScientific Plc said: “In line with the Group’s Strategic Review and stated plans, ProAxsis is an example of the strong commercialisation potential of spin out companies from UK Universities such as Queen’s University Belfast. This provides an early investment realisation opportunity for the company’s two co-founders, Professor Lorraine Martin and Professor Brian Walker, while allowing the company to continue and accelerate its growth. In line with NetScientific’s pro-active management, increasing our stake in ProAxsis via these agreements will enable us to provide the necessary support required to maximise the company’s value and help the company capture synergies within our broader ecosystem in this growing sector. We are delighted that David Moore, the University’s Head of Spin Outs and Investments at QUBIS, has agreed to remain on the ProAxsis board of directors for the foreseeable future.”

About ProAxsis

ProAxsis Limited is a commercial-stage diagnostics company, based in Northern Ireland, with a rapidly growing global client list of pharmaceutical companies and academic laboratories. The company has registered a CE Mark for activity-based immunoassays targeting Neutrophil Elastase (NE) and Proteinase 3, as biomarkers of lung infection and inflammation in chronic respiratory diseases such as COPD, cystic fibrosis and bronchiectasis.

This technology has been translated into a point-of-care test (NEATstik®), to enable ongoing monitoring of active NE levels.  Recently published data has shown that measuring active NE levels using NEATstik® enables identification of patients with airway bacterial infection and those patients at highest risk of suffering pulmonary exacerbations over the subsequent 12 months.

In addition to proteases, the company also has significant expertise in the measurement of other inflammatory biomarkers, including IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alpha.  Grant-funded R&D funded projects for a variety of targets remain a key area of focus.

Aside from the provision of assays, ProAxsis can offer sample analysis at its purpose-built laboratory facility in Belfast and is currently supporting a number of pharmaceutical company-sponsored Phase I, II and III clinical trials.

For more information, please visit the website at: www.ProAxsis.com