Diamics, Inc. Secures Equity Investment From Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc.

NOVATO, Calif., July 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Diamics, a privately-held company developing products for cancer screening and diagnostics, including cervical cancer, today announced that Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc. , a world-leading manufacturer and marketer of rapid diagnostic products for the consumer and professional women's health care markets, has committed to a $6 million staged equity investment in Diamics. Inverness has acquired 51% of the company and assumed a seat on Diamics' three-person Board.

"We are delighted that Inverness has acknowledged the progress of the company and the value of our novel technologies focused on improving cervical cancer screening and are confident that Inverness' expertise in the areas of women's health care and point-of-care diagnostics will help drive commercialization of our products," said Peter Gombrich, CEO, Diamics. "I am very much looking forward to working with Inverness and welcoming their involvement in Diamics."

Under the terms of the agreement, Inverness will provide strategic and hands-on assistance in key areas including: assay development, product design, manufacturing and distribution. As part of the strategic relationship, both parties will also work to exploit and develop Diamics' proprietary point-of-care technology.

Diamics is developing a line of products designed to improve the effectiveness of cervical cancer screening and make the procedure less painful for patients. Currently, the company is producing its FDA-cleared CerCol(TM) Cervical Cancer Collection System, a novel, soft-tipped device, for use with its proprietary Pap-Map(TM) system. Together, these components allow the clinician to painlessly capture 360 degrees of cervical material and transfer the cells, with their spatial orientation intact, to a slide to support localization of identified lesions. Diamics' point-of-care offering, the C-Map system, is now in pre-clinical trials. The C-Map system combines the unique method for cervical sampling and slide preparation with immunological probes that characterize the biological features of the sample. The C-Map system uses automation to identify abnormalities as expressed within the context of normal cellular morphology and eliminates the need for a cell by cell analysis, yielding greater sensitivity and specificity than cytology.

About Diamics, Inc.

Diamics Inc. is a privately owned medical device and diagnostics company located in the San Francisco Bay Area. The company is committed to developing, manufacturing, and marketing cost effective, molecular-based cancer screening and diagnostic systems that will increase long-term cancer survival rates through early detection. Diamics' management team has an extensive track record of success in the medical device and diagnostics industries. The company's mission is twofold: to help medical personnel worldwide improve the lives of the people they treat and to generate a return on investment for its shareholders. For more information, please visit http://www.diamics.com.

CONTACT: Peter Gombrich of Diamics Inc., +1-415-883-2972,pgombrich@diamics.com; or Jennifer Larson, +1-415-409-2729,jlarson@labfive.com, for Diamics Inc.

Web site: http://www.diamics.com/