AIM share code: SKIN

6 May 2020

Integumen PLC

("Integumen" or "Company")

Integumen to double production of Modern Water reagent to meet demand

RAWTest AI real-time alert system to be retrofitted in new Modern Water's Microtox units

Further to the previous notification of production commencement (RNS[i] dated 30 March 2020), Integumen announces completion of the first batch of reagent for Modern Water plc ("MW"). Shipment has commenced to meet the back-orders and growing demand for water contamination detection bacteria from existing clients.  With the increase of water hygiene controls around the world due to the COVID-19 public health crisis, Integumen has doubled production volume with a total list price value of £500,000 per batch, after the current initial production run. Revenues from sales of reagent produced under the revenue sharing manufacturing agency agreement with MW are split 60% / 40% in favour of Modern Water, after costs. 

MW's Microtox is designed to be modular and expandable.  Integumen is integrating its RAWTest[ii] AI real-time alert solution within MW's hardware capacity to expand the capability of the instruments to detect bacteria, nitrates and phosphates.  The roadmap for this integration includes the ability to detect viruses such as SARS-Cov-2.

Integumen and MW have accelerated integration following increased orders of the Microtox range in Europe and SE Asia, including 10 new top-of-the-range Microtox CTM units to be shipped to China in the third quarter 2020.

The environmental arm of DEFRA[iii] has confirmed it is looking at wastewater epidemiology and US Center for Disease Control ("CDC") is already monitoring human waste[iv], the ministry of ecology[v] in China are mandating the hygiene monitoring of water and wastewater and dormant buildings during the epidemic have built up contaminated water in their pipework[vi]

Gerard Brandon CEO Integumen plc and Non-Executive Chairman of Modern Water commented:

"Due to the COVID19 outbreak, wastewater based epidemiology has recently become a high priority for governments looking to monitor for infection hotspots.  The importance of SARS-CoV-2 or any future pandemic infections presented in wastewater to be identified quickly is critical to enable action to prevent the spread of infectious diseases within an enlarged community. This is evidenced by US CDC monitoring human waste[vii] the ministry of ecology in China mandating the hygiene monitoring of water and wastewater or simply that dormant buildings during the epidemic have built up contaminated water in their pipework[viii].

"With increasing demand, the unique combination of MW's gold standard water contamination detection system and Integumen's advanced real-time alert system are forming a vital part of society's frontline of defence against inevitable future outbreaks of infectious diseases."

Market Abuse Regulation (MAR) Disclosure

Certain information contained in this announcement would have been deemed inside information for the purposes of Article 7 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 until the release of this announcement.

About Integumen plc

Integumen is a scientific research and AI-as-a-Service company focused on production and analysis of bacteria, virus and toxins utilising artificial intelligent data analytics in regulatory technology, from scientifically proving the impact of skincare product claims on skin microbiome for top 10 global cosmetic company clients to remotely detecting water contamination in real-time.

About Modern Water plc

Modern Water was established in 2006 to develop and commercialise water recovery technologies to counter water crisis problems arising from climate change and a growing global population. Having invested £20m over the last 14 years, the results comprise of a robust patent portfolio of cutting edge technology, focused on monitoring of contaminated water and decontamination of wastewater, making recycling of water more efficient. Six countries across the world have legislated that Modern Water monitoring test systems are written into their environmental protection legislation.          

About Microtox :

Microtox is a testing system which uses bioluminescent bacteria (Allivibrio fischeri) to detect toxic substances in different substrates such as water, air, soils and sediments. Allivibrio fischeri are non-pathogenic, marine, bacteria that glow (luminesce) as a natural part of their metabolism. When exposed to a toxic substance, the respiratory process of the bacteria is disrupted, reducing light output. Allivibrio fischeri have demonstrated high sensitivity across a wide variety of toxic substances. Response to toxicity is observed as a change in luminescence, which is a by-product of cellular respiration. This change can be used to calculate a percent inhibition of Allivibrio fischeri that directly correlates to the level of toxicity.