Development stage agricultural biotechnology company SemBioSys Genetics Inc. (SBS.TO) Tuesday said it signed a product and platform development collaboration agreement with Tasly Pharmaceuticals, Ltd of Tianjin, China and its wholly owned subsidiary Tasly U.S. SemBioSys said the agreement is the most comprehensive partnering commercialization endeavor in its history. Tasly would commercialize SemBioSys' plant-based manufacturing technology in the global joint venture.
SemBioSys will be entitled to 30 percent ownership and profit sharing of the Joint Venture's profits for contributing global rights to develop and manufacture its plant made insulin and insulin analogues, excluding select territories in which SemBioSys is already engaged in active development discussions, as well as licensing rights to research and development activities of additional products for the pharmaceutical and healthy living markets.
SemBioSys is a biotechnology company that utilizes its renewable, patented plant seed oil body and protein expression technology platforms to develop and make high value proteins and oils and drug candidates for health and wellness products.
Calgary, Canada-headquartered SemBioSys said Tasly is one of China's largest pharmaceutical companies and is China's second largest producer of traditional Chinese medicines or TCM, which are derived from plants. Its lead drug, Tasly Cardiotonic pill, is the number one selling TCM in China and has held that position for the last seven years. In 2010, Tasly recorded revenues of 4.65 billion RMB with a ten year compounded growth rate of 21 percent.
Tasly also has significant operations in the United States , Africa , South East Asia and the UK with its partner. Beijing International Group, an affiliate of Integrin Partners, acted as strategic advisor to Tasly on the transaction.
Upon receiving government approval, a new company based in China called Tasly-SemBioSys Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., will be incorporated in Tianjin, the third largest city in China.
The new company will be structured as a Sino-Foreign Equity Joint Venture, and will develop and commercialize a variety of products including pharmaceutical, functional foods and nutraceuticals for China and the world. Development work on the first products would begin immediately.
Tasly will contribute 100 per cent of the cost of the Joint Venture's global research, development and product commercialization. Further, Tasly will facilitate preclinical, clinical, regulatory services, manufacturing and commercial expertise and utilize its significant sales force to commercialize the Joint Venture's products in China.
According to SemBioSys, Tasly's sales force covers most Chinese hospitals, retail pharmacies and direct to consumer markets with a total of 60,000 representatives. Outside China, the Tasly sales division has a growing presence in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Vietnam, South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.
Tasly U.S. announced in July that it is purchasing a 450,000 square foot facility in Rockville, Maryland and investing $40 million in the new facility for the manufacture of its cardiovascular drug in preparation for Phase III clinical trials in the U.S.
Chairman Yan of Tasly Group said, "The collaboration between Tasly and SemBioSys innovates the application of plant transgenic technology to the pharmaceutical, healthcare and cosmetic industries, makes its safer and more cost-effective, and paves a new path forward for agricultural based products. I believe that Tasly-SemBioSys Pharmaceuticals, Ltd., through the powerful combination of the two giants, will have very broad development prospects and expand around the globe with China's huge market potential."
SBS.TO is currently trading at C$0.15, up C$0.0950 or 172.73%, on a volume of 1.1 million shares, on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Over the past year, the stock traded in a range of C$0.03 - C$0.18, with three-month average volume of 36K shares.
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