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Press Information

TRADING UPDATE  

Dundee, Scotland, 18 December 2009: Axis-Shield plc (LSE:ASD, OSE:ASD), the international in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) company, today issues the following regular trading update for the year ending 31 December 2009, ahead of the Company's close period preceding the Preliminary Results announcement, expected 9 March 2010. 

   

Trading Update

Trading during 2009 is anticipated to be in line with Board expectations. Reported revenues are expected to be approximately 14% higher than in 2008. After adjustment for discontinued business (the disposal of Plasmatec and non-recurring contract R&D), growth is anticipated to be around 18%, which equates to approximately 6% on a constant currency basis. Sales of Axis-Shield products, excluding third party distribution, are expected to be around 23% higher than in 2008, or 9% at constant currency.

Point-of-Care Division sales are expected to be around 24% higher than in 2008. It is envisaged that placements of the Afinion™ Point-of-Care System will exceed 6500 by the year-end, and this includes nearly 3000 in the US, where Axis Shield continues to make significant progress in the doctors' office market through its own sales force together with its partners Abbott and PSS. Revenues related to Afinion™ are expected to be around 70% higher than the £8.6 million generated in 2008, with the HbA1c test for monitoring diabetes leading this sales growth. Progress in the US reflects increasing recognition of the ease-of-use of the Afinion™ system and the reliability of test results, and the Company is committed to maximising its share of the important US market. 

Revenues related to NycoCard™ are expected to exceed £22 million in 2009 compared to £20.6 million in 2008. Both Afinion™ and NycoCard™ CRP sales are expected to benefit from increased awareness of the risks related to antibiotic over-prescribing, with the prevalence of antibiotic resistance significantly lower in countries where CRP is measured routinely in primary care to differentiate between bacterial and viral infections. 

In the Laboratory Division, homocysteine sales are expected to be around 25% higher than in 2008. AxSYM®xtra sales are expected to be in the region of £4.2 million for 2009, compared to £3.7 million in 2008, with a strong performance by AxSYM^® HbA1c. Abbott's launch of the Architect^® assay for anti-CCP (used in the early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis) is likely to drive sales of this important marker, which has recently been recommended by the American College of Rheumatology as a potential new diagnostic criterion for rheumatoid arthritis. Axis Shield is determined to protect its intellectual property for the anti-CCP test and is currently pursuing an infringement case against a third party in the US and Europe. There has also been significant interest in potential licensing of the new HBP test for severe sepsis, which Axis-Shield believes is superior to currently available methods of identifying this critical condition.

Axis-Shield continues to build its franchise in HbA1c testing through Afinion™, NycoCard™ and AxSYM®xtra and 2009 revenues for this marker are expected to exceed £17 million compared to £12 million in 2008. This market is expected to grow as HbA1c becomes more widely adopted as a screening parameter for diabetes, in addition to its currently established utility in monitoring efficacy of glucose control in diabetic patients. 

Our distribution businesses Medinor, Axis-Shield AG in Switzerland and Axis-Shield UK are all expected to show good sales growth over the previous year in markets where economic conditions continue to drive Government healthcare cost savings, which has been particularly apparent in Switzerland. Our newly established PoC distribution business in Germany, Axis-Shield GmbH, has met all performance expectations.

Enquiries:

Axis-Shield plc	Tel: +44 (0)2031787849
Ian Gilham, Chief Executive Officer
Ronny Hermansen, Finance Director
Financial Dynamics	Tel: +44 (0)207 831 3113
Jonathan Birt /Mo Noonan

Notes to Editors:

About Axis-Shield

Axis-Shield is an international in vitro diagnostics company, headquartered in Dundee with R&D and manufacturing bases in Dundee and Oslo. The Group specialises in the supply of instruments and tests for the rapidly growing physician's office testing market and the development, manufacture and marketing of innovative proprietary diagnostics kits in areas of clinical need, including cardiovascular and neurological diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes. 

For more information on Axis-Shield, please refer to www.axis-shield.com

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