A small Israeli company that hopes to revolutionise pre-natal testing through the use of artificial intelligence has had a successful debut on Australia’s stock exchange.
Shares in Identifai Genetics were changing hands early Tuesday afternoon at 24 cents, up 20 per cent from their initial public offering price of 20 cents.
The float gives the company a market cap of $21.8 million.
Chief executive Eyal Miller told AAP in a telephone interview following a bell-ringing ceremony at the ASX that it had been an amazing morning and he was gratified by the market’s response.
The $10 million raised in the IPO will be used to fund the development of Identifai’s Windrose test, a blood test for women who are at least nine weeks pregnant.
A pregnant woman’s blood contains a mix of cell-free DNA from both herself and her unborn child, and ttttIdentifai’s technology uses genomic sequencing and AI to compare the mixture and predict selected inherited conditions.
Expectant mothers have been able to self-fund similar blood tests known as NIPT (non-invasive prenatal tests) since about 2011, but they only scan for Down syndrome and a handful of other genetic conditions.
“We can look through the entire genome, unlike other competitors in the market that are limited in their scope,” Mr Miller said.
There are nearly 300 genes where a fetal finding could change care and 54 genetic conditions that are treatable in the womb, according to Identifai.
“If there is a positive indication that comes into play, the clinicians now also can provide the treatment accordingly, either through the pregnancy, in-utero treatment, or immediately post-delivery.”
The Windrose test is based on the work of two scientists at Tel Aviv University, Professor Noam Shomron and Dr Tom Rabinowitz, and is currently being further validated through a 600-patient clinical trial.
Identifai is looking for commercial partners to support its launch, with an initial focus on the US market.
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