Toumaz Limited teams up with Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong to commercialise the Sensium™ Digital Plaster, a disposable wireless body monitoring device
Toumaz Limited (AIM: TMZ,), a pioneer in low cost, ultra-low power wireless
communications and broadcast technology, has established a new joint venture
with Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s company California Capital Equity LLC (‘CCE’),
to expand the commercialisation and distribution of the SensiumTM Digital
Plaster. The joint venture, which is named “Toumaz US LLC”, will be
headquartered in San Diego, California, and will sell and distribute the
Sensium™ Digital Plaster in North America and Worldwide.
Toumaz Limited is also pleased to announce that the SensiumTM Digital Paster
has received 510(k) approval from the Food and Drug Administration ('FDA') in
the US.
The Sensium™ Digital Plaster is an, ultra-small, ultra-low power wireless
body-worn monitor that continuously and unobtrusively acquires high-quality
vital signs data, including temperature, heart rate and respiration rate. The
current Sensium™ Digital Plaster is targeted for use in hospital general ward
environments. It also has the potential to be extended into tele-care, chronic
disease monitoring, community care settings and the home, where continuous or
extended monitoring of patients is important.
Dr.Patrick Soon-Shiong, Chief Executive of California Capital Equity said:
"Without a doubt, wireless is the future of healthcare. Wireless
technology is the key to bringing quality healthcare to everybody, wherever
they may be, in real time. Toumaz's ultra-low power technology is going to be a
vital element in this, and our joint venture opens up exciting prospects."
Commenting on today’s announcements, Professor Chris Toumazou, Toumaz
Limited Chief Executive, said: "We are very excited to be working closely
with Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. We share his vision of building a better
healthcare system by enabling remote patient monitoring. Dr. Patrick
Soon-Shiong and his team bring considerable expertise in the development and
distribution of medical devices and technology in the US. The extent of Dr.
Patrick Soon-Shiong’s involvement in this venture illustrates the potential of
the wireless healthcare market and our compelling proposition.” He added: “We
are pleased to be taking this project forward from the solid technical and
commercial base that has been established. We are confident, given the disruptive
nature of our technology, that launching Toumaz US as a specialist vehicle is
the most effective way to bring the SensiumTM Digital Plaster to the global
market.”
Under the terms of the new partnership, California Capital Equity will
provide up to $25M funding to the company over the next two years and will own
80% of the equity. The remaining 20% will be held by Toumaz Limited.
Toumaz Limited will also receive both product and royalty revenues from the
joint venture as it commercialises the SensiumTM Digital Plaster
Toumaz Limited and its previous Strategic Partner have worked closely to
develop and refine the SensiumTM Digital Plaster over a number of years. As
part of the agreement, the previous Strategic Partner is transferring to Toumaz
Limited all relevant IP, product design, clinical trial data, regulatory and
FDA documentation as well as sharing supplier relationships with Toumaz Limited
for use in the new joint venture.
Toumaz Limited CEO Professor Chris Toumazou will join the Board of the new
Toumaz US as Vice-Chairman, and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong will serve as Chairman.
In February 2011, Toumaz Limited announced that California Capital Equity LLC
had made a strategic investment in the Group to develop Sensium™ technology for
consumer healthcare applications. Toumaz Limited issued 14,563,142 shares to
CCE at 8.83p per share, representing a stake of 2.46% in the group.
Toumaz Limited will publish a trading update for the six months to 30 June
2011 in late July.
About Toumaz Limited:
Toumaz is pioneering low cost, ultra-low power wireless technologies for a
wide range of markets including medical monitoring and internet-connected
consumer devices.
Targeting the Healthcare market, Toumaz’s licensable smart sensor interface
and transceiver platform, SensiumTM, is a leader in real-time wireless
monitoring of the body’s vital signs. SensiumTM has the potential to transform
medical monitoring and reduce the cost of healthcare by wirelessly connecting
individuals to healthcare providers – simply, affordably and unobtrusively. For
healthcare professionals, this creates new opportunities for pro-active
monitoring and improved quality of care. For patients, it delivers new
opportunities for lifestyle-compatible personalised healthcare.
Toumaz also uses its ultra-low power expertise to design devices for
wireless connectivity and internet-connected consumer products. Toumaz
currently supplies FM/DAB radio chips and complete modules to leaders in the
digital radio market, such as PURE.
Toumaz is an AIM listed company (AIM: TMZ) with development centres in
Oxford, UK and Taipei City, Taiwan.
About Dr Patrick Soon–Shiong
Dr Patrick Soon–Shiong is a co-inventor of more than 50 issued U.S. patents,
has published more than 100 scientific papers, and developed and sold two
multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical companies, American Pharma Partners (APP)
and Abraxis Bioscience (ABII). APP was responsible for the only safe supply of
Heparin in the United States in 2008.
Since 2006, Dr. Soon-Shiong has turned his attention to transforming
healthcare by establishing an integrated health information platform and
founded the National Coalition for Health Integration (NCHI) to create a
national health network for the secure, national sharing of biomedical
information with the goal of improving health for individuals. He has also
founded the Institute for Advanced Health, which will provide high-speed
computing capabilities for human genotyping to target specific cancer
treatments, as well as technologies for the better management of chronic
disease.
Contacts:
Nicky Denovan
toumaz@evokedset.com
Phone: +44 (0)7747 017654