Corporate News

Concepta PLC (AIM: CPT), the innovative UK personalised healthcare company and developer of the proprietary self-test platform ("myLotus®"), the UK's most accurate home-use fertility tracking and pregnancy testing system, announces a trading update.

Following the appointment of Penny McCormick as Chief Executive Officer and Maddy Kennedy as Chief Financial Officer in the final quarter of last year, the Company has made substantial progress to establish an effective operational structure to ensure the commercial success of myLotus®, and to advance new product opportunities.

A product with huge potential with the right marketing strategy and structure

myLotus® is a technologically proven and innovative product, with tests that are proudly developed and manufactured in the UK, and which has already made a difference to hundreds of women looking to conceive. The product is unique in that it responds to the needs of over half of women who do not have regular cycles, compared to market-standard semi-quantitative tests that will only work accurately for 44% of women*. The Company is not just selling a commodity health product but has the opportunity to support women through information and technology once they decide they wish to conceive, helping them to act as soon as possible to maximise their chances of success with full transparency of their personal cycle.

Utilising the marketing and commercial leadership experience brought by new CEO Penny, the Board has reviewed the Company's marketing strategy and has streamlined the marketing function to establish a more effective core team to undertake direct marketing, knowing that the Company's technology is highly effective in helping women pinpoint their optimal time for conception, directly leading to successful pregnancies.

Whilst the Company is in the early stages of commercial roll-out it will build upon strong listings on www.boots.com and grow its presence on Amazon. The Company aims to open-up new channels with a strong awareness campaign in H1 2020 through targeted messaging on paid, earned and owned channels, a greater ownership of digital space, and a targeted PR strategy. To that end a newly upgraded commercial website has been launched (www.mylotus.com) and this will be followed by a fully optimized website launch and cross-channel marketing strategy launched before the end of the first half 2020.

In addition, the Company expects to launch a modest clinical trial with a leading London hospital in Q1 2020, to further highlight the accuracy of myLotus® when measured against in-clinic processes, and demonstrate the value of this product to the patient.

Cost reductions & move to outsourced manufacturing

The new management team has identified a number of cost reduction opportunities and has already achieved a 30% cost reduction to the current operating overhead, the impact of which will be seen in the financial year ending December 2020. In addition, the Company is considering options to outsource manufacturing to a UK based third-party. This will have the added benefit of further reducing the Company's operational cost-base and will allow the team to focus entirely on furthering the Company's portfolio and commercial activities. As a result of this strategy, the Company's Chief Operating Officer, David Darrock, has agreed to stand down with immediate effect.

New product development

Whilst during 2020 the Company will look to establish its current product within the fertility health space, Concepta will look to build out a portfolio around myLotus® from 2021 onwards. Penny is well-experienced in building a business with a strong portfolio of products and has focussed on the manufacturing and commercialisation of women's health medical devices and newly developed lateral flow technology. A substantial portfolio product development programme is now underway, with new products expected to be ready for commercialisation in the next 12 months.

Commenting on outlook and focus, Penny McCormick, Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"Having joined the Company at the end of last year I am very excited about the prospects for our flagship self-test fertility test myLotus®. We have made progress quickly and efficiently over the past two months and we have a business with substantial upside opportunity that is now in a position to deliver upon its potential.

"We have a clear opportunity to drive the commercial success of the UK's most accurate home-use fertility tracking and pregnancy testing system and to help women worldwide gain a better understanding of their fertility when looking to conceive. I look forward to updating shareholders as we execute our commercial plans, in particular how we can accelerate UK sales growth beyond the thousands of App downloads already achieved, as well as expanding into key European markets. Through the year we expect to be able to update shareholders on the successful targeting of key fertility clinic groups as well as executing a successful OTC retail pharmacy strategy.

"I joined this Company because of my belief in the commercialisation potential of myLotus®, a product that has already been proven in a highly regulated market. My passion and commitment is undiminished after my first two months at the Company and I am confident and excited about our ability to successfully roll-out this product."

Concepta PLC will be reporting its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2019 year end toward the end of April 2020.

*Alliende et al., Mean versus individual hormonal profiles in the menstrual cycle; Fertility and Sterility 2002.

About Concepta PLC (www.conceptaplc.com)

Concepta PLC is an AIM-quoted pioneering UK healthcare company that has developed a proprietary product, myLotus®, targeted at the personalized mobile health market with a primary focus on hormone testing and increasing a woman's chances of naturally getting pregnant and to provide insight to unexplained infertility.

myLotus® is currently the only consumer product which allows both quantitative and qualitative home (self-test) test measurement of a woman's personal luteinizing hormone (LH) during ovulation and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone level during pregnancy, facilitating higher conception rates and early diagnosis of fertility issues. The proposition of myLotus® is to empower women to better understand their hormone levels and menstrual cycle and help women conceive naturally by identifying their window of fertility and optimal time for conception.

The Company has received CE-mark certification for myLotus® and has launched its first product in the UK. The Company is preparing plans to roll-out across the core EU countries in 2020.

myLotus® is expected to be beneficial to users who have been unable to conceive after 6 months of trying. This highly motivated target group of women won't typically be offered medical intervention until after 12 months of unsuccessfully trying to conceive, with IVF not usually offered until after two years of trying to conceive. Research indicates couples start to take positive action ahead of this time typically with little medical support to help them do so.