Vancouver, British Columbia – August 19, 2013 – [6]Sirona Biochem Corp. (TSX-V: SBM, [7]OTCQX: SRBCF) announced today the signing of a Letter of Intent whereby Sirona Biochem will provide an exclusive license to Wanbang Pharma to develop and commercialize Sirona’s SGLT2 Inhibitor in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). In exchange for this license, Sirona Biochem will receive upfront and milestone payments of up to US$9.5M upon successful achievement of development and regulatory milestones and then royalty payments for product sales in the PRC.
Under the terms of the LOI, Wanbang Pharma will assume responsibility for funding and leading all clinical studies required for Chinese Food and Drug Administration approval. Sirona Biochem will be provided all clinical study results to support new regulatory applications outside of PRC.
“We are excited by the opportunity to work with Wanbang Pharma, the leading anti-diabetic company supplying the largest diabetic population in the world,” said Neil Belenkie, Chief Executive Officer of Sirona Biochem. “With more than 90 million people suffering from diabetes in China and the market growing more than 20% per year, we believe that Wanbang Pharma is uniquely positioned to provide maximum potential to commercialize our SGLT2 Inhibitor in the Chinese marketplace”.
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About Wanbang Pharma
Wanbang Biopharmaceuticals is a leading pharmaceutical company in China that specializes in research, production and marketing of medicines for diabetes, cardiovascular disease and endocrinology. Among domestic pharmaceutical companies, Wanbang Pharma is the largest manufacturer and marketer of a comprehensive portfolio of drugs for diabetes.
Wanbang Pharma is a subsidiary of Fosun Pharmaceutical Group which is listed on the Shanghai stock exchange (SHA:600196). Fosun Pharma, a major shareholder of Sino Pharma (HKG:1099), the largest drug distributor in China, is part of the Fosun Group, the largest non-state owned enterprise group in China which is listed on the Hon Kong stock exchange.
About Sirona Biochem
Sirona Biochem is a biotechnology company developing diabetes therapeutics, skin depigmenting and anti-aging agents for cosmetic use, biological ingredients and cancer vaccine antigens. The company utilizes a proprietary chemistry technique to improve pharmaceutical properties of carbohydrate-based molecules. Sirona Biochem is the parent company of French-based biotechnology company, TFChem. For more information visit [8]www.sironabiochem.com.
For more information regarding this press release, contact:
Antonia Issa
Communications Manager
Sirona Biochem Corp.
Phone: 604.282.6065