Biohit Oyj - Company Announcement

Biohit Oyj records a goodwill impairment in its 2011 Financial Statements

14 February 2012   5:15 PM.


Biohit Oyj, Stock exchange release, 14 February 2012   5:15 PM


The Board of Directors of Biohit Oyj has decided that Biohit Oyj records a
goodwill impairment of EUR 2.6 million in its 2011 Financial Statements. The
impairment is based on the goodwill impairment testing required by the IFRS
standards and carried out at the year end. 

Goodwill has been allocated to certain GastroPanel products in the Diagnostics
segment. Testing was executed according to the same principles as in the
previous year. In 2010, the previous year's forecast proved to be fairly
accurate, but in 2011, actual performance was substantially behind the
forecast. In the first years of the forecast period, the expected cash flow
from products was negative due to delayed net sales development and the fact
that most of expenditure occurred at early stages of the period. According to
the IFRS standards, this creates a need to record an impairment for goodwill in
its entirety, EUR 2.6 million. 


For further details, contact:
Semi Korpela
President and CEO
tel. +358 40 573 7701
semi.korpela@biohit.fi


Distribution:
NASDAQ
OMX Helsinki Oyj
Central Storage Facility (www.oam.fi)
Press
www.biohit.fi


About Biohit

Biohit Oyj is a globally operating Finnish biotechnology company established in
1988. Biohit's mission crystallizes in its motto “Innovating for Health”. The
company assumes social responsibility by producing innovations, new
technologies and analysis systems for use in medicine, research institutions
and industry. These products help to promote research and diagnostics, while
improving quality of life by preventing disease, human suffering and financial
loss. Biohit also seeks to innovate and develop the marketing and availability
of its products and services. 

Biohit works with scientific communities to produce new technologies, products
and services based on research results and innovations. These can be used to
develop safe and cost-effective diagnostic tests for the early detection and
prevention of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract. (www.biohit.fi /
International / State of the art GastroPanel and Acetium innovations for the
unmet need). 

In January 2012, sixteen world-leading gastroenterology specialists from eleven
countries proposed in their SJG publication the use of the biomarkers of the
modern GastroPanel test for safe and cost-efficient primary diagnosis and
screening of Helicobacter infection and atrophic gastritis in patients with
stomach discomfort and in asymptomatic patients, as it is neither safe nor
cost-efficient to use the 13C urea breath test for this purpose. In addition,
the authors of the publication state that acetaldehyde generated in an
achlorhydric stomach (a consequence of atrophic gastritis) is a significant
reason for an increased gastric and oesophageal cancer risk.  Acetium capsules
can reduce the amount of cancer-causing acetaldehyde generated in the stomach -
and thus, very likely, they also reduce the cancer risk (SJG: “GastroPanel
biomarkers: Rationale in diagnosis and screening of atrophic gastritis with
stomach-specific plasma biomarkers”, Scadinavian Journal of Gastroenterology.
2012; 47: 136-147). 

Biohit's products include analysis systems for the prevention and early
diagnosis of gastrointestinal diseases, such as the blood-sample based
GastroPanel examinations for the diagnosis of stomach illnesses and associated
risks, quick tests for the diagnosis of lactose intolerance and H. pylori
infection in connection with gastroscopy, and the ColonView examination for the
early detection of intestinal bleeding that indicates a risk of colorectal
cancer. Acetium reduces the amount of carcinogenic acetaldehyde in an anacidic
stomach. (www.acetium.com/test - reveals acetaldehyde exposure) 

The population is aging and, therefore, the need for safe and cost-efficient
diagnosis and prevention of diseases is strongly increasing. People are
becoming more aware of acetaldehyde and the cancer risks associated with it.
This is expected to substantially increase the interest in the company's
products and services. 

Biohit is headquartered in Helsinki and has a subsidiary in the United Kingdom.
Since 1999, Biohit's Series B share (BIOBV) has been quoted on NASDAQ OMX
Helsinki in the Small cap/Healthcare group (www.biohit.fi/Sijoittajat). 

Read more at www.biohit.fi