Stony Brook, NY (PRWEB) March 27, 2014
Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB: APDN), (Twitter: @APDN), an industrial biotech firm that provides DNA-based authentication and security solutions, announced today a contract renewal rate of 100% for companies participating in the SigNature® DNA marking program for the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA).
Eight companies have thus far renewed their contracts, including for each the creation of a new unique DNA mark.
The renewals come as the program has entered a phase of growth and maturity. Twenty-nine companies are contracted for the program. Of the eleven companies which have signed in the last seven months, eight are original component and equipment manufacturers.
Company officials pointed out that the customer base of the program has increasingly become more strategic. At the program's inception, customers were mainly smaller distributors. Now close to half of the value of DLA 5962 contracts awarded go to manufacturers, authorized distributors, OEMs, and prime defense contractors. On average, 42% of DLA award revenue via the DLA suppliers' portal for the three months ending Feb 28, 2014 is from significant trusted DLA suppliers.
The customer base also has begun to include much larger firms: three customers alone boast revenues from $3 to $30 billion annually.
Officials also pointed to the increasing influence of the program in the industry, with scores of trade media articles concerning SigNature DNA marking published within the last year alone.
DNA marking was the only counterfeit prevention technology mentioned in the closely-watched DoD Annual Industrial Capabilities Report to Congress for 2013.
Of special note, APDN officials said, is the participation of prime defense contractors, which play an especially important role. Two have signed to-date and several others have expressed strong interest.
The primes can flow down the requirement for SigNature DNA marking to their own suppliers. And very soon they will be made responsible for federal anti-counterfeiting regulations. Indirectly, and perhaps directly, primes would be impelled to consider flowing down such requirements.
Janice Meraglia, Vice President for Government and Military Programs for APDN, commented, "We think there is a developing gravitational pull on the industry to take proactive measures in counterfeit prevention."
Dr. James A. Hayward, President and CEO of Applied DNA Sciences, commented, "We think our technical platform has been proven successful at a broad industry level, is game changing, and “sticks” by the real value it brings."
About Applied DNA Sciences
APDN is a provider of botanical-DNA based security and authentication solutions that can help protect products, brands, entire supply chains, and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. SigNature® DNA describes the uncopyable marker that is at the heart of all of our security and authentication solutions. SigNature DNA is at the core of a family of products such as DNAnet®, our antitheft product, and digitalDNA®, providing powerful track and trace. All provide a forensic chain of evidence and can be used to prosecute perpetrators.
The statements made by APDN may be forward-looking in nature. Forward-looking statements describe APDN's future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of APDN. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to our short operating history, limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, market competition and various other factors detailed from time to time in APDN's SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed on December 20, 2013 and our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. APDN undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.