Hutchmed Regulatory News (HCM)

6 Nov 2006 07:01

Hutchison China Meditech Limited06 November 2006 Hutchison China MediTech Limited ("Chi-Med") (AIM: HCM) Chi-Med Announces Development Agreement with Procter & Gamble for the Discovery and Development of New Active Ingredients for Beauty Products London: Monday, 6 November 2006: Chi-Med today announces its wholly-owned drug R&D subsidiary Hutchison MediPharma Limited ("Hutchison MediPharma") has signeda research and development agreement with the Procter & Gamble Company ("Procter& Gamble"), P&G Beauty division to discover and develop new active ingredientsfrom Traditional Chinese Medicine and botanical sources for incorporation intobeauty care products. The agreement is for two years, during which the Chi-Med group will screen itscollection of plant extracts against beauty care targets nominated by Procter &Gamble and conduct natural product chemistry to characterise and optimise activecomponents that arise from the screenings. Procter & Gamble will have the rights to commercialise any resulting products inthe area of beauty care. Procter & Gamble is a global market leader in Beautyand competes in markets which comprise over $220 billion in global retail sales.The Chi-Med group will be the exclusive supplier of active components for anybeauty care products developed as a result of the collaboration and will retainthe rights for any healthcare applications. Mr. Christian Hogg, CEO of Chi-Med, said: "The agreement is a recognition of the quality of Chi-Med's research anddevelopment capabilities and illustrates the wide potential range of theirapplication. It will generate near-term income and offers the prospect of longerterm revenues from licensing and/or supplying active ingredients for beauty careproducts and from their use outside beauty care." Chi-Med sees Traditional Chinese Medicine as a major, under-exploited reservoirfor the development of novel drugs for the global pharmaceutical market and fordeveloping new products for the global health and beauty consumer markets.Plants, particularly those that have been used as traditional medicines, have along-established record of efficacy and safety. Dr. Samantha Du, Chief Scientific Officer and Executive Vice President ofChi-Med said: "Chi-Med has established truly world-class screening technologies and Procter &Gamble is a global leader in the field of beauty care. We look forward toworking together to pursue products that may bring breakthrough benefits toconsumers. Plants, particularly those that have been used as traditionalmedicines, represent an exciting opportunity for beauty care based on theirestablished human safety and efficacy profiles." Ends Enquiries Chi-Med Telephone: +852 2121 8200Christian Hogg, CEO Citigate Dewe Rogerson Telephone: +44 (0) 20 7638 9571Anthony Carlisle +44 (0) 7973 611 888Chris Gardner +44 (0) 7903 737 649Yvonne Alexander +44 (0) 7866 610 682 Notes to Editors Chi-Med is the holding company of a pharmaceutical and healthcare group basedprimarily in China and was admitted to trading on the Alternative InvestmentMarket of the London Stock Exchange in May 2006. Chi-Med is focused onresearching, developing, manufacturing, and selling pharmaceuticals, healthsupplements and other consumer health and personal care products derived fromTraditional Chinese Medicine and botanical ingredients. Its overall aim is todraw on the untapped wealth of knowledge and history of usage in the TraditionalChinese Medicine industry to develop products for the global market. The Companyhas three complementary businesses: drug R&D, China healthcare and consumerproducts. Hutchison MediPharma is Chi-Med's wholly-owned drug research and developmentcompany and has a team of around 100 scientists and staff focusing on botanicaldrugs, semi-synthetic natural product drugs, and synthetic single chemicalentity drugs. It currently has two candidates in clinical development in boththe US and China. HMPL-002, a radiosensitiser for head and neck and non-smallcell lung cancer ("NSCLC"), is in Phase I/II in the US and in proof of conceptin China. HMPL-004, an inhibitor to a group of inflammatory cytokines, fortreatment of inflammatory bowel diseases ("IBD"), including Crohn's Disease("CD") and Ulcerative Colitis ("UC"), is in Phase II in the US and in proof ofconcept in China. Hutchison MediPharma also has a pipeline of single molecularentity discovery projects in the auto-immune/inflammatory diseases and oncologytherapeutic areas which have shown activity against clinically validatedtargets. Chi-Med is majority owned by Hutchison Whampoa Limited, an internationalcorporation listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange