18 Dec 2009 08:03
Taihua plc
("Taihua" or the "Company")
Update as to potential European Distributors
Taihua would like to announce an update regarding the sale of its Paclitaxel product into the European market. Following the granting by the European Directorate of Quality Medicine ("EDQM") of a Certificate of Suitability ("COS") (as announced to the market on 28 September 2009) the Company has been in discussions with potential partners to distribute Paclitaxel into Europe
Taihua has shortlisted 3 potential partners. All of these are pan-European businesses that have the experience and scale to enable them to successfully distribute our product and in the Director's opinion they are all very experienced in API distribution. There are, to the best of the Directors knowledge, 5 companies holding a COS from the EDQM for the production of natural and/or semi-synthetic Paclitaxel. Of these, only three, including Taihua plc hold a COS from the EDQM for Natural Paclitaxel.
Not only is there the opportunity to work with these companies as pure API distributors, there is also the opportunity to develop downstream injectible co-operation, as each proposed partner has experience in this area this would enable Taihua to also compete in the finished medicines segment of the market, which is considerably more profitable than APIs.
Discussions are ongoing with the shortlisted parties and Taihua hopes to be able to conclude negotiations by end March 2010, at which time a further announcement will be made.
| For more information please contact: Nicholas Lyth, Taihua plc | 0776 990 6686 |
| Katy Mitchell, WH Ireland Limited | +44 161 832 2174 |