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Market:	ASX
Sector:	Medical Equipment
EPIC:	SOM
Latest Price:	0.97 (0.00%)
52-week High:	1.49
52-week Low:	0.91
Market Cap:	39.70M

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SomnoMed

SomnoMed Limited (ASX: SOM) specialises in products for sleep apnea and anti-snoring through its patented mandibular advancement splint, the SomnoDent MAS. The company's SomnoDent® MAS devices and services are provided to Patients, Dentists and Sleep Specialists.

SomnoMed agreements enable entry into US home sleep testing market

Monday, November 09, 2009

Sydney-based sleep specialist company SomnoMed (ASX: SOM) announced today the signing of two independent agreements with home sleep diagnostics and patient treatment care companies Watermark Medical and SleepQuest in the US and Canada.

SomnoMed shares jumped on the news, trading up 12.8%.

SomnoMed CEO Ralf Barschow said the strategic alliances formed with Watermark and SleepQuest will allow SomnoMed to be closer to the diagnostic process and the medical practitioners involved in tests and diagnosis of SDB.

Watermark Medical TM, LLC is a Florida based private medical products company servicing the sleep-disordered
breathing market and providing a leading diagnostic home sleep test platform.

Sleep Quest is a pioneering home diagnostics and treatment delivery company based in the San Francisco area. Sleep Quest recently secured a contract with Aetna to provide sleep diagnostics and treatment for their 30 million plus members.

Agreements with both companies will allow SomnoMed to capitalize on the significant developments taking place in the sleep diagnostic industry - where increasingly sophisticated ambulatory sleep testing equipment is being used by patients in their homes.

“Watermark and SleepQuest are both, in their own way, leading innovative concepts in the rapidly developing Home Sleep Testing (HST) market," he said.

"Both companies, we believe, will play a significant role in the future of the sleep diagnostic industry in the US and Canada. We at SomnoMed feel very privileged to have been invited to work closely with these companies and to position our SomnoDent® device as the preferred oral appliance,” Ralf Barschow said.

Developments in Home Sleep Testing (HST) in the USA were analysed by UBS and Bell Potter Securities in recently
released research papers (Bell Potter Securities Research, 29 September 2009).

It concluded that HST would lead to increases in diagnosed cases of SDB and would lead to significant, ongoing growth in demand for treatment.

Both Watermark and SleepQuest and their respective patient flow diagrams were presented by UBS and Bell Potter as leading concepts for HST currently underway in the USA.

SleepQuest said it leads the industry in patient compliance by providing positive outcomes through its proven disease management process for the diagnosis and treatment of OSA.

Executive vice president John Truitt of SomnoMed said “home testing will have a significant impact on the development of SDB diagnosis and consequently on SDB treatment. There is a huge need to put these networks in place, with an estimated 90% of 18 million OSA sufferers in North America either undiagnosed oruntreated.”

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