TRIB - Trinity Biotech Announces Acquisition of the CGM Assets of Waveform Technologies Inc. | Benzinga
-Repositioning to a rapidly expanding biosensor market with potential for significant growth for the company as part of a revised strategy under our new management
-Upfront payment of $12.5 million cash and 9 million ADSs
-Strengthened investment relationship with Perceptive Advisors with the entry into an increased senior secured term loan credit facility with lower interest rates and Perceptive Advisors taking an approximately 20% equity interest in Trinity
-Investor call to be held today at 8:30 am EST
DUBLIN, Ireland, Jan. 31, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Trinity Biotech plc (NASDAQ:TRIB) (the "Company") today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the biosensor and Continuous Glucose Monitoring ("CGM") assets of privately held Waveform Technologies, Inc. ("Waveform") for $12.5 million in cash, 9 million American Depositary Shares ("ADSs") of the Company and additional contingent consideration.
"This acquisition marks the first step for Trinity Biotech towards capitalizing on attractive new technology horizons as we pursue a global leadership position in accessible wearable biosensor technology and related data-driven wellness analytics under our revised strategy, with an initial focus on CGM," said John Gillard, Chief Executive Officer. "We plan to begin our journey in a de-risked manner, by using a CGM device that has already received regulatory approval as our platform sensor technology, which we intend to redesign and optimize for broad adoption and then evolve this platform technology to measure and analyse other valuable biomarkers and related datapoints. Our vision is to develop a portfolio of technologies that can offer users and clinicians valuable actionable health and wellness insights based upon what is happening in, on and around the body. The acquired technology permits needle-free administration of the sensor resulting in built-in affordability and we believe that our commercial partnership with Bayer will facilitate market entry across key diabetes markets around the globe. We feel confident in this strategy as Trinity has an over twenty five year history of providing broad access to vital, high quality, diagnostics across the globe, including point-of-care HIV tests in Africa, and can leverage its extensive experience in working with health systems, the World Health Organization ("WHO"), non-governmental organizations ("NGOs") and global health funds to increase adoption of innovative diabetes care tools worldwide," he concluded.
Approved CGM offers differentiated benefits versus main commercially available systems
Waveform, a developer of novel and proprietary new technologies for diabetes care, received a CE Mark for its Cascade CGM in 2019, which has since been commercially available in Europe. Waveform will no longer sell the Cascade device and the Company will not sell that device in its current form. The Company intends to design a next generation CGM sensor using Waveform's platform technology and has secured additional funding from Perceptive Advisors ("Perceptive) for the next stage of the product's development, further details of which are set out below.
The Waveform CGM technology contains innovative and proprietary aspects with important user benefits that include needle-free insertion, which reduces pain and trauma at the injection site, and a reusable applicator and transmitter, which reduces the biological waste concerns associated with the currently marketed single-use disposable systems. Notably, the reusable nature of the applicator and transmitter should allow for a lower cost of production of the redesigned CGM product compared to the principal CGM market players, enabling the Company to target ...