CHINA – EQS Newswire – 15 May 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 Shenzhen Watsin Genetech Limited (Watsin) reached a partnership with Chengdu Medlinker Technology Company Limited (Medlink), to further develop digital marketing channels for the Group’s products, and to expand industry value chain downstream to pharmaceutical E-commerce.
According to the agreement, both companies will start working on Genetime®, expanding its marketing channel to dermatology related clinical experts, and will collaborate across several verticals, including smart healthcare, disease management, patient and clinical practitioner education, academic marketing, healthcare big data, and drug tracing system, to create an integrated healthcare offering.
The win-win collaboration between the Group and Medlink will allow both companies to leverage their advantages in drug development and pharmaceutical e-commerce sector, respectively; the Group has a deep product pipeline, breadth of experience in working with clinical practitioners, and rich clinical resources across many therapeutic areas, while Medlink has a powerful online healthcare management system, online healthcare consultation service, e-prescription, system allowing medical insurance payment, integrated service of online prescription and drug delivery, and highly efficient disease management system.
By connecting clinical practitioners and patient with information technology, we can effectively integrate online and offline academic marketing, educate clinical practitioners and patients more easily, and satisfy patient’s demand via drug delivery to their doorstep; the collaboration also allows real-time therapy progress tracking, enhancing both treatment and compliance rate, and timely adjustment of treatment plan, increasing drug effectiveness. As a result, the collaboration enhance product reachability, take better care of more patients, ultimately driving up clinical and market value of the product.
GeneTime®, a prescription drug for wound and ulcer healing, is the star product of the Group and has been chosen to be the first product for the collaboration. GeneTime® has clear and broad indications, promising a potential massive market. In recent years, the Group placed heavy importance on further developing the market of GeneTime®; in 2019 GeneTime® reached 125 million HKD of sales, a 72.8% growth YoY. In order to further develop GeneTime®’s competitiveness, the Group also started two new R&D projects for the product in November 2019, which is expected to expand GeneTime®’s applications. The collaboration with Medlink is also another important enhancement initiative for GeneTime®.
Especially within the period of COVID-19, patients have changed their perception towards pharmaceutical e-commerce, over 10% increase is seen in PRC pharmaceutical e-commerce sales in 1Q2020. In addition, the collaboration is very well-timed as it takes advantage of the upcoming dermatological disease “high season” during the summer. In addition to GeneTime®, the Company plans to place other products, including nearly launched chronic disease products Uni-PTH and Uni-E4, into the collaboration scope; the collaboration develops solid base for fast future product launches.
Referring to the collaboration, Mr. Kingsley Leung, the Chairman of Uni-Bio Science Group said, “The collaboration with Medlink is an important milestone of the Group’s commercial development. During the period of COVID-19, there has been an increased demand for online hospitals and pharmacies. In the long term, the collaboration adheres to the national policy of encouraging “healthcare + internet”.”
“In the backdrop of both changing patient behaviors and drug distribution trends, the Group has to take proactive steps to pioneer new business models to take advantage of these changes. Our expansion into online healthcare will deliver much better service for patient and clinical practitioner, expand our available marketing channels, and enhance brand awareness. We expect the collaboration will become a strong future driver of GeneTime® sales and learning from this exercise can easily be replicated to other products, to develop greater sales growth for all products in the future.”
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 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 Chengdu Medlinker Technology Company Limited (Medlink)
Medlink is one of first online healthcare platforms acquiring license of online hospital. As to May 2019, 3.5 million of online prescription had been made. From 2018, Medlink leverages technology advantages of internet combining AI and healthcare big data, and focuses on chronic disease management, to provide long-term regulated chronic disease management service for massive patients.
The platform now gathers more than 800,000 real-name registered doctor and 48,000 contract doctor, covering twelve chronic disease areas including herpetological disease, diabetes, HIV, cancer, nephropathic disease and cardiovascular disease, and provides integrated online healthcare service and drug delivery service, allowing patients to have high-quality healthcare service without stepping out their home. Please visit the official website of Medlink for more information: https://www.medlinker.com/
About GeneTime®(Recombinant human epidermal growth factor topical solution (I)
Uni-Bio Science Group’s proprietary product Genetime® is a patented spray formulation of Recombinant Human Growth Factor (rhEGF), which is safe and convenient for administration. GeneTime® speeds up wound healing and reduces scar formation, and can be used in a wide range of hospital departments, including burns, dermatology, obstetrics and aesthetic departments. The prescription biological drug is manufactured via high-tech gene engineering and microbial fermentation techniques.
GeneTime® comes in two specifications: 15ml and 5ml (2000IU/ml). GeneTime® belongs to a national class one new drug and national reimbursement list B drug. It has clear clinical value and is recommended by authoritative medical guidelines, including China National Health Department’s textbook: “Oral mucosal diseases”4th edition, “China wound therapy guide 2015”, “China diabetic foot therapy guide 2017”. According to research by Guangzhou Biaodian Medical Information, each year PRC has over 5-10 million burns patients, 5.5 million patients with diabetic foot ulcers, and over 7.33 million patients with skin bedsores. The patient amount of aesthetic medicine, including laser and photon freckle removal, has also been increasing significantly year by year. Hence, the Chinese market for rhEGF was 702 million RMB in 2019, and is expected to be over 1.42 billion RMB in 2024, a 5-year CAGR of 15.08%.