Source BioScience Release: Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Signs Up to BD FocalPoint™

1 February 2012 -- Source BioScience (LSE: SBS), the international diagnostics and genetic analysis business, is pleased to announce that a second NHS Trust, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (‘Pennine Acute’) has committed to implementing its automated cervical cancer screening technology, BD FocalPoint™. The agreement is worth £0.4 million and the term of the agreement is up to March 2014.

Pennine Acute is the first Trust in England to adopt the technology and, in the UK, it is the second following Cervical Screening Wales which signed up to the technology in December 2011. The value of the combined contracts is in excess of £1.0 million up to July 2015.

Amanda Eckersley, Cellular Pathology Service Manager for Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust said: "Our Cytology Department is the sole NHS provider of cervical cytology screening services for all of the Greater Manchester area and has the largest workload of any laboratory in the country examining approximately 180,000 samples per annum. The department has been at the forefront of new innovations within the cytology screening programme, embracing new developments such as electronic requesting and reporting, and the introduction of Lean working systems. The BD FocalPoint™ technology will greatly assist our laboratory to sustain turnaround times within our defined standards and enhance the quality of service that we provide for women in the Greater Manchester area.”

The BD FocalPoint™ is the only automated technology for cervical cancer screening approved for use by the NHS and is distributed in the UK by Source BioScience. It is able to analyse and identify up to 25% of screening samples that can be reported as “No Further Review” (NFR) requiring no primary manual examination. With over 3.6 million tests being undertaken across England and Wales during 2009/10, this represents a significant reduction in laboratory workload and the need for additional staffing and outsourcing.

With this technology, Source BioScience can now provide customers with a unique and complete solution for cervical cancer screening from sample collection, processing, imaging and diagnostic testing, including HPV testing.

Dr Nick Ash, CEO at Source BioScience, commented: “Since publication of the implementation guidelines by the NHS, there has been considerable interest from many NHS Trusts in adopting the technology. The commitment to the BD FocalPoint™ system by a second NHS Trust demonstrates the confidence there is in this technology and we’re delighted that Pennine Acute NHS Hospitals Trust has added the BD FocalPoint™ to its screening programme. There are a number of ongoing discussions with other NHS Trusts and we expect further announcements in the months ahead.”

For further information, please contact:

Source BioScience plc

Dr Nick Ash, CEO

Tel: +44 (0)115 973 9010

Email: enquiries@sourcebioscience.com

www.sourcebioscience.com

College Hill (PR Agency to Source BioScience)

Melanie Toyne-Sewell/Jayne Crook

Tel: +44 (0)207 457 2020

Mob: +44 (0)7890 022814 / +44 (0)7979 462044

Email: sourcebioscience@collegehill.com

About Source BioScience:

Source BioScience plc (LSE: SBS) is an international diagnostics and genetic analysis business serving the healthcare and research markets. The LifeSciences division provides core laboratory research support from conceptualisation to implementation, calling upon a wide range of cutting-edge technology platforms including an online catalogue of biomolecular tools. The Company is a trusted provider of a complete range of sophisticated microarray, next generation and conventional sequencing services. GLP, GCP and CPA accreditations make the sequencing offerings also very attractive for applications in regulatory studies or clinical settings. Its Healthcare operations provide screening and reference laboratory diagnostic testing for cancer and other diseases and additional predictive testing for treatment optimisation for clinicians and patients. The Group has its headquarters in Nottingham, UK. Further information about Source BioScience can be found at www.sourcebioscience.com

About BD SurePath™ and BD FocalPoint™:

The BD SurePath™ liquid based cytology test is one of the two technologies approved for use in the UK in the screening and detection of cervical cancer. The BD SurePath™ test is distributed in the UK by Source BioScience. The BD FocalPoint™ is an automated imaging technology intended to assist in cervical cancer screening of BD SurePath™ liquid based cytology test slides. It uses complex algorithms to interpret images of each slide and decide the ten “field of view” most likely to have any abnormal cells. It can archive up to 25% as “No Further Review” (‘NFR’) which then do not need to be screened manually. The BD FocalPoint™ is the only automated technology for cervical cancer screening approved for use by the NHS and is distributed in the UK by Source BioScience. For more information, please visit healthcare.sourcebioscience.com/cytology

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