EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc

("EKF", the "Company")

Board appointment

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc (AIM: EKF), the AIM listed point-of-care, central laboratory and molecular diagnostics business, announces the appointment of Dr Tito Bacarese-Hamilton to the Board of Directors of the Company, as Chief Technology Officer with immediate effect.

Tito, aged 56, joins EKF from Diabetes specialist LifeScan Scotland Ltd ("Lifescan"), a wholly owned Johnson & Johnson franchise, where he was Vice President, R&D for New Products & Platforms. At Lifescan, Tito had global responsibility for the full-scale development and commercial launch of all new product platforms and was the main interface with manufacturing operations for the production of LifeScan's new, multi-product sensing platforms.

Before joining LifeScan, Tito was CEO of Microtest Matrices Ltd, a protein chip company that he co-founded in 2000. Prior to this role, he held senior R&D positions at Ares-Serono and Amersham International. Tito was also a founder of Quotient Diagnostics, which was acquired by EKF in 2010.

Tito is a clinical biochemist by training and brings more than 25 years of research and industrial experience in the medical and life sciences sector. He has a broad-based background in medical research and diagnostic product development, biotechnology, drug development programmes and general management. He is an acknowledged expert in the field of in vitro diagnostics with a proven track record of repeatedly and successfully turning innovative technology into revenue-generating platforms.

Tito graduated from King's College, London and earned his PhD at the Royal Postgraduate Medical Centre in London. He is a Fellow of the American National Association of Clinical Biochemistry and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles on a variety of topics related to pathology, oncology and laboratory medicine.

David Evans, Chairman of EKF, commented: "We are both privileged and fortunate to have been able to secure Tito's talents. At the recent AGM I referred to strengthening our Board by looking to recruit A* talent and Tito falls into that category. We will benefit not only from his skills, knowledge and expertise but from the common shared values of openness, trust and accountability that bind us as a team."

Enquiries:

Additional Information:

Tito Adolfo James Bacarese-Hamilton, aged 56, holds 106,429 shares in the Company and other than as set out below there is no further information to be disclosed under schedule 2(g) and Rule 17 of the AIM Rules in respect of Dr Bacarese-Hamilton's appointment today as a Director of the Company.

Tito is a director / partner or has been a director / partner of the following companies / partnerships during the previous five years:

About EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc - www.ekfdiagnostics.com

EKF Diagnostics Holdings plc was formed in July 2010 following the acquisition of EKF-diagnostic GmbH for €14.32m and refocused its strategy to one of building a substantial point of care diagnostics business. As part of this strategy, the Group has integrated three further acquisitions, Quotient Diagnostics Limited (acquired in September 2010), Argutus Medical Limited (acquired in December 2010) and Stanbio Laboratory L.P. (acquired in June 2011). In 2013 EKF established a new subsidiary, EKF Molecular Diagnostics Ltd, to focus on molecular and companion diagnostics and acquired 360 Genomics Ltd, a business that owns diagnostics technologies for cancer gene detection.

The Company, with its head office in Cardiff and operations in London, Germany, Poland, Russia, Ireland and the US, is a leading diagnostics business, focussing on the development, production and distribution of chemical reagents and analysers for the testing of Glucose, Lactate, Haemoglobin, Haematocrit and HbA1c.

In March 2011 EKF entered into a distribution agreement with Alere Inc ("Alere"), a global diagnostics company, under which Alere was appointed the exclusive distributor of EKF's CLIA waived Hemo Control device and cuvettes in the US, Canada and United Kingdom. The device is distributed in the US under the name HemoPoint H2. 

In March 2014, EKF acquired Separation Technology, Inc., a Florida based manufacturer of in vitro diagnostics devices for the haematology testing market. In April 2014, EKF completed the acquisitions of Selah Genomics Inc., a US based developer of molecular diagnostics for personalised medicine and DiaSpect Medical AB., a Swedish based manufacturer of point-of-care haemoglobin analysers.