Osmetech acquired the Opti product line from Roche Diagnostics. Opti is the portable analysis technology for bloodgas and electrolytes measurement. This highly successful analyser has also taken the veterinary world by storm. IDEXX Laboratories Inc (IDXX) have entered into a ten year OEM agreement to provide the customised OPTI analysers to the veterinary field under the brand VetStat.

In September 2004 the company acquired the "OPTIgene" (Genedrive) product from MS this technology will enable OMH a strong entry point into the fastest growing market segment of DNA based diagnostics. A market that is growing at an annual rate of 20% and is currently worth $ 22 bln !

In the latest acquisition 1/7/05 Osmetech acquired Clinical Micro Sensors from Motorola PLC, OMH plans to utilise the eSensor technology coupled with OPTIgene to address the majority of existing and new tests in the genetic diagnostics market. 'CMS's diagnostic tests for cystic fibrosis and CYP450 are closest to commercial launch and OMH believes that these products have significant market potential.

Scroll & Click for Websites & Other LinksRT Mag Wall Street Reporter Interviews JW

Up Coming Events in 2006

CMS CYP450 product Launch!!!!!............................................. 2006

IDEXX critical care platform Launch!!!!!....................................2006/7....much more to follow

Click Here to Track Osmetech's Progress in the "Stocks That Could Double in 2006" Competition

Just a quick glance back over the historic chart patterns shows that OMH can and does make some huge moves prior to the results. Rises of 50 -75% have been seen in a space of the few weeks prior to the figures release.

Interestingly a poster on ADVFN has estimated that the takeout value of Osmetech could be in the region of 500m or about 3.80 a share.
That's based on the value Becton Dickinson paid for GeneOhm at 46x revenues purely revenues from their PCR buisness of $5 million. Osmetech revenues from the blood gas critical care side of the buisness already exceed $5 million and with the imminent launch of OPTIgene and eSensor Osmetech group revenues are expected to greatly exceed that figure very rapidly.

Should see a significant rise on Monday on the back of todays Telegraph write up. It seems that a few of the national papers are keeping a close eye on OMH (Osmetech)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/03/18/ccmed18.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2006/03/18/ixcoms.html

New ways to cut the error out of drug trials
By Katherine Griffiths (Filed: 18/03/2006)

Better understanding of our DNA and other high-tech advances will make medical research less risky, says Katherine Griffiths

As the families of six men seriously ill from taking an experimental leukaemia drug wait anxiously for news of whether they will recover, a question doctors and the public will ask is if this tragedy could have been prevented.

The answer is, perhaps, yes. It is too early to say for certain, because it is not yet known what caused the terrible reactions in the human volunteers to the drug TGN1412. There could have been problems with the medicine, but equally it could have been someone giving the wrong dose or a toxic substance getting into its production which was to blame.

Some in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries say if it is the drug which turns out to have been the problem, such a tragedy might not have to be repeated. This is because tests that show to a far greater extent than ever before what a drug will do to a human before it is injected into the body are now at the cutting edge of research and development.

The wealth of new information about the way the body works from breakthrough discoveries about our DNA is making these new techniques ever more useful.

The new technologies, most of them still only being worked on by a handful of small companies around the world, which sound more like science fiction than reliable scientific tests, are rapidly being built on top of that foundation.

The methodologies range from computer modelling involving highly complex mathematics to testing drugs on hearts taken from people killed in traffic accidents and kept alive in boxes.

Analysts say these techniques are on the brink of explosive growth, with large pharmaceuticals companies waking up to the fact that they can massively speed up the drug development process and also make it much cheaper, because dud medicines can be scrapped at an earlier stage.

The devastating events at Northwick Park Hospital in north London, which have left two men in a coma and four others still seriously ill, will also inevitably act as a catalyst in getting regulators and public opinion to put pressure on drug developers to turn to new and more sophisticated tests.

Most experts in the pharmaceuticals industry believe such developments will not replace the current system, where drugs are tested in laboratories, then on animals and then in three phases of human trials.

But a growing number believe the traditional system could be greatly improved by adding a range of new tests, especially at the stage when a drug has been given to animals but not yet been introduced as a phase 1 trial in people.

Ibraheem Mahmood, a lifesciences analyst at Investec, points to the emerging field of testing unknown drugs on human organs taken from people who have died from other causes as an area of huge future significance.

"In five or 10 years' time the world's pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies will still be running the same animal and phase 1 trials but they will also have a battery of supporting tests that provide greater insight into the results of these tests. We'll be able to make much better decisions before committing to large and expensive risky trials," Mr Mahmood said.

One developer of this technique, known as "ex vivo", is a small company called Asterand, which is operating in both both Detroit in the United States and Royston, Hertfordshire, a few miles south of Cambridge.

The company takes tissue from a variety of sources, including accident victims, and from people who have donated their organs which turn out not to be good enough, and either supplies them to drugs companies for tests or does the tests itself.

Ronald Openshaw, Asterand's chief financial officer, said TeGenero, the German company which made TGN1412, was not a client, so it was impossible to tell exactly what tests were done on the drug apart from the animal tests required by regulators before the drug was tried out in humans.

But he said: "That whole bitterly disappointing situation raises the issue of if there was anything else that could have been done."

Mr Openshaw argues that Asterand's technology does, at least in some circumstances, catch such situations. He cited the example of a client which had brought a drug to Asterand for testing.

"The drug had been in pre-clinical development and they thought it caused cardiac toxicity.

"We took some heart muscle and put it in an organ bath where it could be kept beating and effectively alive for three days. We tested the drug on it and found it did have side effects," Mr Openshaw said.

Asterand will not reveal the identity of the company because it keeps all of its clients confidential, but it did say it was a large player in the pharmaceuticals sector which, after it received the results of the trial from Asterand, dropped the drug.

Asterand, which has just 100 employees and has been gradually developing its techniques for the past eight years, says it is now being overwhelmed with demand from large drug companies that want to use its techniques.

Another arena where small developmental companies are finding themselves in demand is in an area known as molecular diagnostics. Thanks to the wealth of information now available about the human genome, companies can work out with far greater precision what a drug will do to a particular person based on their genetic make-up.

A company working in this area is the Boston-based Osmetech. Among the products the company has developed is something called an Esensor, a machine which uses DNA technology.

It is also developing something called an Optigene, a piece of equipment slightly bigger than a laptop computer which will help scientists in labs and doctors in hospitals find information such as a person's metabolism. Such relatively simple information can make a lot of difference in deciding on what dose to give a patient and even whether the medicine will work at all.

The reasons why these areas are some of the fastest growing in the drugs industry are not hard to find. Pharmaceutical companies have to pay more than 500m to bring a single drug from its earliest stages through a multiplicity of tests to the market.

Adopting tests that can determine at an early stage whether the treatment will work in humans or not could save millions of pounds. It is possible that it could also save lives.

16 March 2006[News]: Drug trial victim is like Elephant Man, says girlfriend

Any rise will be down to the results due on Tuesday not an article in the Telegraph.

astonvilla

Watch and learn...it's called DYOR...great find bangersmam.

astonvilla - squelched

yeah good post bangers but why will the share price be affected by an article in Telegraph 1 day before results with only a small mention to OMH? You said a significant rise. Lots of interesting posts and research on a competitors message board which you are a member. DYOR and dont ramp with outrageous comments. OMH are establishing a sound product base with sales. This share price will only go one way and that is up. DYOR.....update......where was this substantial rise....mid price never moved? Lets hope tomorrows results raise the profile of OMH. I've topped up.

Results Out On Tuesday

Ditchpig..are you sure?

Results are out.....can anyone post results or link for others. Results as expected for me but sp dropping. Bringing new products to the market is expensive, so always going to need additional funding. DYOR and dont listen to rampers like Bangersmam and his posts on other sites. Substantial rise get real. Sound management establishing a good solid platform for growth never going to be a quick buck made here. I continue to hold.

As a holder of this stock for over four years, I'm very glad I sold out at the recent peak of around 34p (nursing a chunky loss, too). I'm afraid to say that I have been disappointed with this share since the "story" changed quietly some time back from selling a Chlamydia test based on the "electronic nose technology" into a multi-billion-dollar market to the current concentration on Gene products. (The Chlamydia product appears to have been rendered superfluous by a home-testing product developed by a rival; it's a pity OMH didn't see this coming sooner). A lot of dilution has been involved in the process of OMH acquiring new products and for those of us who bought most of our stock pre-consolidation, that has meant that the attractiveness of the share has dwindled greatly over time. While I am certain that OMH's new product range will have its day in the sun, it is clear that a lot more dilution is in the pipeline as they place stock in order to fund the co through to profitability.

This share would have to take a well-deserved hammering before I could be induced to buy again. Perhaps a visit to the recent low of around 15p is too much to ask, but I would only think of the SP as attractive around 18p and then as a speculative bet rather than a near certainty. Longer-term I'd incline towards agreeing with astonvilla, but so far it has been a bumpy ride and more than likely will be in the future.

All IMHO, PDYOR, etc., and good luck to those of you who are still in!!

Like Soul traders, I have been in this stock for a few years, hoping with some enthusiam that their products were at the forefront of technology and rich pickings were there for the brave.

Trouble is that the management keep moving the goalposts promising jam tomorrow and continually look for acqusitions without fully bedding down previous buys. Perhaps the markets reaction today will remind the management that it is a fickle world out there and they will be continually penalised in the SP when they dont deliver.

Good comment, hobbsts - hope you haven't bet your pension fund on this one!! :o)

What a group of pathetic, short sighted, moaning, old whingebags.



Yes the company has stated they may require further funding to take them in to profit BUT they have also made clear this may come from a variety of ways. NOT necessarily by further dilution of the SP.

As for not bedding in previous acquisitions??? I think we can now say OPTI is firmly bedded in with the help of a 10 year agreement with IDEXX, and the recently purchased MOLs and CMS technology is only a few months away from hitting the market in it new form...... The same technology which is currently being applied to a new platform at IDEXX which will be an instant worldwide hit to be launched in the short / medium term. Not to mention the chance of the technology being used in alternative markets - forensics, environmental etc...........................zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

For those that haven't bothered to read further than the results headlines - News flow over the next few months will be very strong.

1) CMS eSensor - launch date: April 2006
2) OPTI TUBE - launch date: May 2006
3) OPTI GENE - launch date: June 2006

These products were exhibited in
November 2005 at two major international shows in the US (AMP) and Europe
(Medica) and generated a significant level of pre-launch interest both from
potential commercial partners and end customers.

Nope - thank god for my final salary pension!!

Am showing a hefty loss on Osmetech and have put it down to experience .... you win some , you lose some. Will hold in the forlorn hope that the management can find some profit within their little empire, but the continued promise of success has worn very thin with me, but I least I still can have a giggle every time they release their results !!!

I think it is a shame Bangersmam when you have some investors who share a different view to yours you have to call them pathetic..Who was the one that mentioned a significant rise a few days ago?..ummm grow up. I'm not disputing what you say but you ramp a share too much here and on a competitor board. The last few posts by observers and investors are well judged there are no quick bucks here but I for one also remain positive about the future albeit not as quick as we would all like.

Yaaaawwwwwwwwwn

The lunch time AFX update


LONDON (AFX) - British diagnostics group Osmetech PLC reported widening
losses in the last 8 months of 2005 after buying molecular diagnostics group
Clinical Micro Sensors (CMS) last year.
Osmetech is reporting 8 month results after changing its year end date. In
the 8 months ended Dec 31 pretax losses widened to 5.4 mln stg from a loss of
2.9 mln in the 12 months ended April 30, 2005.
CMS accounted for 2.9 mln stg of the losses, and Osmetech said group loss
will increase this year reflecting a full year's effect of the new business.
The company is due to launch three new products in the next few months, and
chief executive James White told AFX News that profitability should start to
improve as soon as they hit the market.
"We knew when we bought the business we would have to fund some working
capital, but within 6 months we've got a product ready to hit the market place,"
he said in an interview.
Osmetech has two units, critical care, which makes blood gas analysis
machines, and another that is developing molecular diagnostics equipment.
It was the latter division that was strengthened with the acquisition of CMS
last year. Its first test, to detect the gene for Cystic Fibrosis, will be
launched shortly on the new eSensor platform.
A DNA analysing system called Opti Gene and a product line for use on a
Roche AG instrument will follow.
Osmetech hopes smaller hospitals will buy the machines. They allow doctors
to carry out tests on site and more cheaply than sending away samples to a lab.
White said the market for molecular diagnostics is growing fast as more
tests are developed, and the division has the potential to be more profitable.
The distribution network already established for the critical care business
will be utilised to roll out the new products.
The group will also be looking to acquire and develop new tests, such as for
MRSA detection, the CEO added.
In the last 8 months of 2005, sales surged 78 pct to 5.59 mln stg compared
to the same period the previous year. The result was lifted by a
better-than-expected result from Critical Care.
The launch of a new machine for vets helped boost sales in 2005 by 64 pct to
14.79 mln usd. The company is not anticipating the same level of growth from the
division this year, but sales should still increase significantly and
profitability improve, it predicted.
Osmetech shares were trading 3 pence weaker at 22.25 at noon, valuing the
company at 33 mln stg.
amy.brown@afxnews.com
ab/vjt/ab/ra

COPYRIGHT

clueless tw@ts

Its the market that ultimately judges the company by its performance and future outlook. I would absolutely love OMH to rocket and make me some money, but I think people have to be realistic and not to get carried away with the jam tomorrow syndrome.