Uni-Bio Science Group, Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical and Suzhou Yingli Medical Technology Build Strategic Partnership on Acarbose Industry Value Chain

HONG KONG, CHINA – EQS Newswire – 15 April 2020 – On 15^th
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 2^nd
round of China National Drug Centralized Procurement Scheme in the end in 2019,
indicating high clinical value and large market size of Acarbose.