LONDON, UK: EDX Medical Group has acquired the entire issued share capital of Torax Biosciences Ltd. by the issue of 1,666,667 new ordinary shares in the capital of the company at a deemed price of £0.06 per share.

EDX Medical develops innovative digital diagnostic products and services for cancer, heart disease, neurology and infectious disease testing.

Torax Biosciences is a research company providing product development and pilot scale fabrication of immunochemistry-based assays and diagnostic testing solutions.

Torax is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of EDX Medical and will provide an experienced point-of-care diagnostics technical team with proven skills in innovation and new product development. Torax will also provide additional laboratory capacity in Northern Ireland in support of EDX Medical’s established laboratories in Cambridge.

The Torax laboratory operates under ISO 9001 and ISO-13485 accredited quality systems for IVD product design, development, manufacture and commercialisation.

Torax’s expertise and facilities complement the EDX Medical laboratory PCR and genomic sequencing tests which are provided under ISO 15189. The quality systems of the combined group will provide assurance for both point-of-care and laboratory test solutions delivered by EDX Medical Group Plc.

Torax Biosciences was founded by and is led by Dr Lawrence McGrath, who joins EDX Medical as a Senior Development Scientist and will continue to lead Torax where he will be joined by Dr Mike Hudson, EDX CEO as co-director of Torax as an EDX Medical subsidiary.

Dr McGrath is a recognised expert in the field of diagnostic and immune-chemistry, graduating with an MSc and PhD in Biochemistry from The Queen’s University of Belfast. Dr McGrath established Torax following a career as a biomedical scientist in Belfast City Hospital, Head of the Medical Technology Institute in Oman and as Senior Research Officer in the School of Medicine at The Queen’s University of Belfast. He has published extensively in the fields of oxidative stress and vascular chemistry, Alzheimer’s Disease and immunochemistry. Dr McGrath served in the Royal Army Medical Reserves Services retiring as Lt Col. during which time he was deployed to Kosovo as a field Biomedical Scientist and to Iraq with the Medical Support Regiment.

Professor Sir Chris Evans, Founder of EDX Medical, said: “We are delighted to announce this strategic acquisition of Torax which will add further strength and depth to EDX Medical’s innovation and product development capabilities. This enables us to provide an even wider range of testing solutions and data analysis. The Torax knowledge and capabilities in immunochemistry will accelerate our development of robust and innovative tests for cancer and other significant diseases.”

Dr Mike Hudson, chief executive officer of EDX Medical, said: “We are extremely pleased to welcome Dr McGrath and his team to our group. They are a highly experienced development team with an excellent reputation and I am sure they will play a key role in the development of the EDX Medical business.”

 Dr Lawrence McGrath, CEO of Torax, said: “We have a great deal in terms of product design and innovation and we are now able to move our company to a new level as part of the EDX Medical group. This is an important step for us and we look forward to contributing further to this exciting clinical sector.”