Patent infringement settlement and trading update

MedaPhor Group plc (AIM: MED), the global provider of advanced ultrasound training simulators for medical professionals, provides the following update on the patent infringement settlement and on trading for the year to 31 December 2016.

Patent infringement settlement

Further to the statement made by the Company on 16 December 2016, the Group subsidiaries, MedaPhor Limited and MedaPhor North America Inc. (collectively “MedaPhor”), announce that MedaPhor and SonoSim Inc. and The Regents of the University of California have now formalized and executed their agreement on a patent license and patent infringement settlement. As a result, the lawsuit between the parties will be dismissed with prejudice.

Trading update

The Company reports that unaudited Group turnover for the year to 31 December 2016 grew by 50% to £3.3m (2015: £2.2m). Unaudited Global sales of ScanTrainer training simulators grew by 10% to £2.45m for the year to 31 December 2016. Following the acquisition of Inventive Medical Limited in August 2016, HeartWorks training simulators contributed approximately £0.85m to sales in the post-acquisition period.

The loss for the year before share based payment charges, but after the currently anticipated one-off costs of the SonoSim litigation and final settlement, is expected to be around £2.5m (2015: Loss, £1.5m).

Cash, at 31 December 2016 net of the anticipated litigation and settlement costs payable, was £1.4m.  

The Board is encouraged by the sales growth achieved in 2016 despite the issues faced during the year. Following the resolution of the patent infringement action, the Board looks forward to achieving its growth targets for its US-based business in FY 2017 and beyond.

This announcement contains inside information which, prior to its disclosure, was inside information for the purposes of the Market Abuse Regulation (Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014).