SQI Diagnostics Wins Commercial Agreement with Global Pharma

TORONTO, Dec. 18, 2013 /CNW/ - SQI Diagnostics Inc. ("SQI" or the "Company") (TSX-V: SQD), a life sciences and diagnostics company that develops and commercializes proprietary technologies and products for advanced microarray diagnostics today announced that it has entered into a commercial product development and services agreement with an Irvine California-based global pharmaceutical company.  Under the terms of the agreement SQI will be paid to build a customized, 6-plex anti-drug antibody ("ADA") assay to detect and measure immunogenic responses to a drug in the customer's extensive drug pipeline.  The agreement also compensates SQI to provide preliminary data using this custom assay on a set of the customer's pre-clinical samples provided to SQI.  The agreement includes payment for the services for this phase of the project as well as for the consumables used during development and sample testing.

"SQI is very pleased to work with this very prestigious customer as they represent a significant opportunity to work and collaborate with another industry leader in our Diagnostic Tools and Services business" said Andrew Morris, CEO of SQI Diagnostics.  "We believe that when we successfully complete this project, during the first calendar quarter of 2014, we will be in an excellent position to win the on-going consumable and instrument business for the human trials for this drug as well as additional ADA projects and biomarker business with this customer". 

The Company believes that the on-going conversion of previously announced major pharmaceutical customers in its sales pipeline that have evaluated, or who are in the process of evaluating SQI's custom and off-the-shelf biomarker products to be a catalyst leading to wider market adoption of its Diagnostics Tools and Services products.  Each of these customers and target customers has many individual drugs in various stages of development each of which could benefit from our unique custom services and multiplexing products.

The economic benefits of using SQI's custom Ig_PLEX tests and SQiDlite^TM automated testing equipment in drug development are to decrease the total number of tests performed through multiplexing while at the same time requiring significantly less volume of valuable blood samples; reducing the total time required to process the tests resulting in significantly reduced labour and testing timelines - having a significant impact on the customer's total cost of testing in the clinical phases of their drug development programs.  SQI's Ig_PLEX products have been shown to significantly improve the sensitivity and other important performance metrics through the use of its custom ADA tests, ultimately resulting in better data to our customers.

About SQI Diagnostics

SQI Diagnostics is a life sciences and diagnostics company that develops and commercializes proprietary technologies and products for advanced microarray diagnostics.  The Company's proprietary microarray tests and fully-automated systems are designed to simplify protein and antibody testing workflow, increase throughput, reduce costs and provide excellent data quality.  For more information, please visit www.sqidiagnostics.com.

For more information about SQiDlite and SQI Diagnostics' suite of biopharma and clinical diagnostic products and services please visit www.sqidiagnostics.com, or contact SQI at: [email protected].

Forward-looking Information

This press release contains certain forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements containing the words "may", "plan", "will", "estimate", "continue", "anticipate", "intend", "expect", "believe", "in the process", "benefits", "leading to", "possible" "is subject to" and other similar expressions which constitute "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements reflect the Company's current expectation and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to: the ability of our patents to adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep any competitive advantage; our ability to market and sell our novel multiplexing technologies and detection platforms; our ability to maintain any technical or product advantages; our ability to continue to market and sell our products; potential supply problems or price fluctuations with sole source or other third-party suppliers on which SQI is dependent; SQI's ability to increase customer orders and manufacturing volumes; adverse changes in general economic conditions; impact of healthcare reform legislation; and, SQI's ability to raise additional funds in the future on acceptable terms or at all. Such statements reflect the current views of the Company with respect to future events and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and other risks detailed from time-to-time in the Company's ongoing filings with the securities regulatory authorities, which filings can be found at www.sedar.com. Actual results, events, and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements either as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

 

SOURCE: SQI Diagnostics Inc

Sales and Marketing Contact:
Russ Peloquin
Vice President, Global Commercial Operations
913.484.9022
[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:
Andrew Morris
Chief Executive Officer
416.674.9500 ext. 229
[email protected]