Legal proceeding settled The Walker and Irminger legal proceeding against the Company was finally settled on 28 November 2022, with no admission of liability. Under the terms of the settlement the plaintiffs received the BARD1 Lung Cancer Test (LCT) intellectual property (IP) and a lump-sum payment of A$1 million (inclusive of GST) that included an obligation to commit $300,000 to the development of the LCT. INOVIQ has retained the Breast and Ovarian Cancer IP and will receive 10% of future sales of any BARD1 LCT until the expiry of relevant patents, and 5% thereafter. The settlement avoided the costs, inconvenience and uncertainty of litigation, and allowed the proceeding to be dismissed with no costs ordered. The Intellectual Property associated with the BARD1 Lung Cancer Test was housed within the Group’s wholly owned Swiss subsidiary, BARD1AG SA, the control of which was given up when the shares were transferred to the plaintiffs as part of the settlement. Appointment of new CFO On 6 October 2022, it was announced that Mark Edwards would join INOVIQ as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary, effective 2 November 2022. Mark Edwards B.Acc., CA is an experienced CFO and Company Secretary with expertise in financial leadership and management, corporate governance, investor relations and corporate transactions. His previous role was CFO and Company Secretary at Medical Developments International Ltd (ASX: MVP) for 8 years, where he managed over $60 million in capital raisings, relocated the head office and manufacturing facility, established global infrastructure and operations and oversaw multiple new product launches. Previously he was Head of Finance and Company Secretary at Cogstate Ltd (ASX: CGS) and an Audit Senior Manager at Ernst & Young (EY) for 14 years, leading and managing professional staff in all aspects of audit, financial reporting, analysis and internal control across Manufacturing, Retail and Consumer Goods sectors, which included ASX listed clients. Scientific Awards On 13 April 2023, INOVIQ was pleased to advise that Chief Scientific Officer, Professor Greg Rice, has been awarded the prestigious Joan Hunt IFPA Senior Award in Placentology for 2023. This award represents the highest distinction of the international placental research community, and recognises the work of established senior scientists, Principal Investigators and clinicians who have made a significant contribution to the understanding of placental and reproductive functions in general. Vale – Prof Allan Cripps With profound sorrow, INOVIQ reflects on the passing of respected colleague and former Director, Professor Emeritus Allan Cripps AO on 21 December 2022. Prof Cripps served on the INOVIQ board as a Non-Executive Director from 23 January 2020 until 13 December 2022, when he retired due to ill health. Prof Cripps had a distinguished career as a clinical scientist and INOVIQ benefited immensely from his deep experience during his time on the Board. Investment in our future During the year, INOVIQ invested in its people across exosome science, product development and commercial, as well as in state-of-the art equipment to support its in-house and partnered exosome-based product development for research, diagnostic and therapeutic applications. INOVIQ’s Melbourne laboratory was upgraded to an exosome core facility to enable high throughput sample processing, exosome isolation, characterisation and downstream analysis to provide a turn-key biomarker discovery-to-diagnostic solution for INOVIQ’s internal and partnered EV-based R&D programs. Additionally, EXO-NET research, development and manufacturing was centralised from INOVIQ’s US site to its upgraded Melbourne laboratory to streamline R&D activities, expand production capacity and increase access to the Australian Government’s Research and Development Tax Incentive scheme. Review of Operations 18 INOVIQ Limited
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