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PARIS & CAMBRIDGE, England

Novacyt (ALTERNEXT: ALNOV), an international specialist in cancer and infectious disease diagnostics and Leica Biosystems, a leading supplier to the pathology market, today announce the start of the sales and marketing programme for the launch of the NOVAprep® platform in China.

The official product launch was recently held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang organised by Leica Biosystems, Novacyt’s exclusive marketing and distribution partner in China. The event was attended by over 50 Laboratory directors and pathologists, many from the larger, class III hospitals in China. Other regional meetings have also been chosen to launch the NOVAprep® platform including the China Medical Association meeting in Qingdao, Shandong that took place on the 29^th to 30^th May, 2015 attended by over 200 clinical professionals.

China is the fastest growing market for cervical cancer screening today and by 2020 it is expected to be significantly larger than the US market for liquid based cytology screening. There are estimated to be 60 million cervical cancer screening tests performed annually in China today and by 2020 this could grow to 150 million cervical cancer screening tests per year.

The forecast opportunity from the distribution partnership with Leica Biosystems in Greater China and the projected growth of liquid based cytology in other Asian markets has meant that Novacyt has taken the decision to invest in infrastructure in Asia Pacific. It has therefore recently established its headquarters for the region in Hong Kong with a further business subsidiary in China. Both companies are wholly owned by Novacyt SA.

Graham Mullis, Group CEO of Novacyt, commented, “Today’s announcement marks the start of the sales and marketing programme for NOVAprep® in China. This comes just a few months after our announcement of the distribution partnership with Leica Biosystems in March this year, and follows the registration of both the instrument and consumable vial with the CFDA in February. Significant planning is currently taking place by both parties as we extend the marketing programme for the NOVAprep® platform throughout the Greater China region. The feedback we have received from the initial launch meetings have been very encouraging and interest in the NOVAprep® platform is high. We are delighted with Leica Biosystems’ rapid response, a team which is proving an excellent partner for Novacyt to penetrate the fastest growing cytology market in the world. I look forward to updating our shareholders of progress during the second half of 2015.”

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View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150601006320/en/