CHINA – EQS Newswire – 15 April 2020 – On 15th April 2020, a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company — Uni-Bio Science Group Limited (the “Company”, together with its subsidiaries, the”Group”; Stock code: 0690.HK) is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary Beijing Genetech Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Beijing BKJ), Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Sinopharm Weiqida ) and Suzhou Yingli Medical Technology Company Limited (Suzhou Yingli) formed a strategic partnership to improve the industry value chain for the Group product Acarbose (also known as”Boshutai”).
According to the agreement, Suzhou Yingli is responsible for the early development of Acarbose active ingredient (API), Sinopharm Weiqida is responsible for Acarbose API industrialization development, manufacturing and supply, and as a result, Beijing BKJ will have at least 10 years stable supply of Acarbose API for product commercialization.
The win-win collaboration structure between Uni-Bio Science, Sinopharm Weiqida and Suzhou Yingli aligns the three companies’ incentives, enabling the parties to leverage their respective advantages, closely integrating the upstream and downstream of the industry value chain, enhancing production efficiency to reduce cost, all the while maintaining the high quality of the product.
Most importantly, the collaboration facilitates Boshutai to become a future winner of the national drug volume-based procurement. In turn, it will better serve China’s diabetes patients by decreasing payment pressure of medical insurance and providing high quality affordable therapeutic options.
Diabetes is one of the core focus areas of the Group. The Group has launched several Diabetes products and others currently under development, including Mitiglinide, Acarbose and GLP-1; the Group’s diabetes product pipeline covers different mechanisms of action, providing an integrated therapeutic solution for patients.
The Group expects launching Acarbose will add tremendous value for the Group, solidifying a stronger foothold into the diabetes market, as well as developing sales synergy with other diabetes products of the Group. Meanwhile, the close strategic partnership with a leading API manufacturer may expand to other products that could add further value to the Group’s future portfolio and business.
Referring to the collaboration, Mr. Kingsley Leung, the Chairman of the Group, said, “The collaboration with Sinopharm Weiqida is crucial for our Acarbose commercialization plan. In the new market conditions in China, cost leadership is the key for any generic drug to succeed. By leveraging each company’s strength and closely integrating the industry value chain, we will be able to compete in an RMB 8.4 billion market where only four players presently compete.”
“The math is simple, even if we only win 10% of the market, it is already RMB 840 million sales, which is four times the Group sales in 2019. Unlike the past, the new market dynamics means we don’t need to invest in the market, and see a slow ramp up in sales. Simply winning the tender will immediately give us big volumes.”
Mr. Miao Ruichun, the President of Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical, said, “Partnership between Sinopharm Weiqida , Uni-Bio and Suzhou Yingli completely aligns with strategy of Sinopharm Weiqida , to leverage integration advantages of research & development, API and formulation, and helps Sinopharm Weiqida explore the Market Authorization Holder (MAH) system.
The partnership will drive parties to achieve great revenue, build great competitive advantages for the product, and develop a solid foundation for the product to gain its market share.”
About Uni-Bio Science Group
Uni-Bio Science Group Limited is principally engaged in the research and development, manufacture and distribution of biopharmaceutical products. The research and development center is fully equipped with a complete system for the development of genetically-engineered products with a pilot plant test base which is in line with NMPA requirements.
The Group also has two GMP manufacturing bases in Beijing and Shenzhen. The Group also has a highly efficient commercialization platform and marketing network. The Group focuses on the development of novel treatments and innovative drugs addressing the therapeutic areas of endocrine as diabetes and osteoporosis, ophthalmology and dermatology. Please visit the official website of Uni-Bio Science Group for more information: www.uni-bioscience.com
About Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical Company Limited
Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical Company Limited is wholly owned by the Shanghai Shyndec Pharmaceutical Company Limited, and is located in Datong City, Shanxi Province; Sinopharm Weiqida is an important API manufacturing plant base to the China National Pharmaceutical Group Company Limited (Sinopharm).
Sinopharm Weiqida has the leading manufacturing and great capability production plant for API requiring fermentation, and owns an integrated industry value chain for cephalosporin and penicillin from API to formulation.
As a famous leading company manufacturing and exporting API, over 50% of Sinopharm Weiqida’s product sales occurs in international foreign market. The collaboration on Acarbose API involves fermentation production, highly requiring fermentation equipment, production capability and environment protection measures, which are advantages of Sinopharm Weiqida. Please visit the official website of Shinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical Company for more information: http://www.weiqida.com
About Suzhou Yingli Medical Technology Company Limited
Suzhou Yingli Medical Technology Company Limited is located in the Suzhou National University Science and Technology Park of Nanotechnology of Suzhou Industrial Park. Suzhou Yingli is an innovative company integrated with research and development, manufacturing, marketing and sales, and focuses on high-end pharmaceutical research and development for pharmaceutical intermediates, active ingredients and formulation technology. Since Suzhou Yingli was founded, Suzhou Yingli has developed several challenging high-end active ingredient development technologies for active ingredient projects requiring fermentation and synthesis.
About Boshutai® (Acarbose tablet)
Boshutai is the trade name of the acarbose tablets developed by Uni-Bio Science Group, which comes in two major dosage strengths, 50mg/tablet and 100mg/tablet.
Acarbose is clinically indicated for impaired glucose tolerance and diabetes type 2 patients to decrease post-prandial glucose level, listed as a first line therapeutic drug in the China Diabetes Prevention and Therapy Guide 2017, and listed as one of drugs in the National Essential Medicine List and National Basic Medical Insurance. Acarbose inhibits alpha glucosidase in the intestine to decrease glucose absorption, which is particularly suitable for Asian patients whom have high carbohydrate diets.
According to International Diabetes Federation data, Diabetes population in China reached 114 million. The China diabetes drug market is expected to continue to grow quickly in the coming ten years due to drivers such as aging population, increasing diagnosis and treatment rate, and growing importance of chronic disease drug by the medical insurance policy in China.
Acarbose already has the largest market share among oral hypoglycemic agents in China; according to the Chinese public healthcare institute sales data, Acarbose reached RMB 8.4 billion in sales in 2018, growing at double-digit CAGR in the past five years. In addition, Acarbose was listed in the 2nd round of China National Drug Centralized Procurement Scheme in the end in 2019, indicating high clinical value and large market size of Acarbose.
