Axela Inc. Retains Investment Bank to Evaluate Strategic Opportunities

TORONTO, Feb. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Axela Inc. announced it has appointed AmeriTech Advisors healthcare investment banking team to respond to recent strategic interest from life science industry companies. This involves licensing or sale of rights to certain of the company's recently developed multiplex tests and proprietary platform technologies.

Over the last 2 years Axela has successfully transformed itself from being an engineering based, life-science tools company, into a strategically focused solutions provider, poised to exploit large market opportunities in Cancer, Immunology, Specialty Diagnostic and Life Science markets.  Axela has focused its MDX applications on rapidly growing markets which demand the combination of high numbers of gene and/or protein markers, rapid results and competitive pricing.

Axela's Flow-thru Array® platform addresses the gap that exists between multiplexed nucleic acid PCR and high density DNA/RNA arrays. The Ziplex® platform is more cost effective and unlike existing approaches, can be readily integrated into established laboratory workflows while  measuring 125-150 genes.  Recently, capabilities have been expanded to include fully automated multiplex protein analysis, offering significant advantages over bead or plate based platforms.  Ziplex, which is patented with extensive freedom to operate, can simultaneously measure more than 50 proteins rapidly while consuming only a few microliters of sample.  Performance has been demonstrated in infectious diseases, traumatic brain injury, and allergy testing applications.

Axela has also significantly advanced the company's second generation diffractive optics platform in collaboration with SONY DADC as part of a development program called ClearDx. The result is a cost efficient and very flexible protein multiplexing platform designed to move the delivery of Personalized Medicine closer to the patient. The platform is supported by a large patent estate and is uniquely well positioned to deliver highly informative assays in multiplex format (32+) at the point of use for human and veterinary diagnostics, research or bioproduction monitoring.

Strategic alternatives the Company may pursue could include a merger, partnering or other collaboration agreements, an equity or debt financing, sale of the Company or other strategic transactions.  The Company does not intend to disclose developments with respect to this process until the evaluation of strategic alternatives has been completed and the board of directors has approved a specific transaction.

About AmeriTech Advisors
AmeriTech is an investment bank dedicated to providing capital raising and strategic advisory services to emerging growth companies in the technology and medtech sectors with market capitalizations of between $25 million and $500 million. Their bankers have 20 years' experience at major global investment banks and as senior managers at public companies with experience executing successful transactions. Their goal is to build mutually beneficial relationships between our emerging growth company clients, technology and medtech/pharma partners, and their network of investors.

Contact:
Dan D'Agostino
Managing Director
AmeriTech Advisors
708 Third Avenue, 5th fl.
New York, NY 10017
T: 212-209-3885
C: 917-596-9870
F: 212-209-7101
[email protected]

Member FINRA/SIPC.

SOURCE AmeriTech Advisors