World’s First APAS Independence Purchased By St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne

Adelaide, Australia, 24 August 2018

Clever Culture Systems, a joint venture between Australian company LBT Innovations Limited (LBT) and Swiss company Hettich Holding Beteiligungs und Verwaltungs, is extremely pleased to announce the first commercial sale of the APAS® Independence to St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne.

This transaction is a significant one for Clever Culture Systems (CCS) being the first sale of an APAS® Independence instrument globally. The APAS Independence remains the only stand-alone, automated plate reader using artificial intelligence available commercially anywhere in the world.

St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne was also the first installation site for the APAS® Independence where it successfully completed a six-week independent evaluation using a pre-production instrument at the end of 2017.

The future development of additional analysis modules by LBT will extend the clinical application and addressable market globally for the APAS® Independence. Given its familiarity with the instrument, St Vincent’s Hospital has been selected to assist with analytical and performance testing of the instrument, essentially acting as a centre of excellence for other potential customers and physicians to observe the instrument in commercial operation.

LBT CEO and Managing Director, Brent Barnes, said:
“We are proud to deliver the first sale of an APAS® Independence instrument globally in our launch market of Australia. We have been working for the past five years to deliver this important milestone. The decision by St Vincent’s Hospital to purchase an instrument provides validation for our APAS® technology and we look forward to continuing to collaborate with St Vincent’s Hospital in the development of future analysis modules and as a centre of excellence.

I would also like to acknowledge the hard work of our team and partners who have contributed to the achievement of this first sale. We know our shareholders have been waiting for this news for some time. We are committed to achieve other instrument placements in 2018.”

Clever Culture Systems General Manager, Peter Bradley, said:
“We have developed an instrument in response to a real need in today’s microbiology laboratory processes. The APAS Independence increases the efficiency of laboratories by allowing the microbiologists to focus on the specimens that need their expert attention. We are excited that St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne have embraced the technology and look forward to sharing this technology with the rest of the world.”