CombiMatrix Reports Preliminary Quarterly Growth in Prenatal Testing Volumes of 124% for First Quarter

CombiMatrix Corporation

, a molecular diagnostics company performing DNA-based testing services for developmental disorders and cancer diagnostics, today announced that it expects to report record volumes of prenatal testing in the first quarter ended March 31, 2013. Preliminary quarterly growth rates of 124 percent over the first quarter of 2012 were achieved for billable prenatal tests. The continued rapid growth in prenatal testing is the result of CombiMatrix's strategic shift in mid-2012 to focus its commercial resources primarily on the prenatal molecular diagnostic testing markets, where the Company believes that chromosomal microarray analysis (CMA) is becoming the standard of care. This strategy is supported by a pair of National Institute of Health-sponsored studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine in late 2012, which favored CMA over traditional karyotyping for genetic prenatal diagnosis and genetic evaluation of stillbirths. Many experts believe that these publications marked the onset of a paradigm shift toward CMA. CombiMatrix is the only publicly-traded company that specializes in CMA. The Company also announced that it was expanding its technology offerings to continue to capture market share and serve the expanding volumes. By recently incorporating Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs)