Chinese deal marks BioProgress expansion
capsules for drug and vitamin delivery, is increasing its
international presence, signing its first agreement for a line of
products for the Chinese market.
It also announced today that it has listed on the Nasdaq, raising its profile in the key US market.
The UK firm has granted exclusive distribution rights in China and Taiwan to pharmaceutical company AXM Pharma for certain formulations of its Soluleaves technology that can deliver flavours and drugs through dissolve-in-the-mouth films.
Under the initial two-year agreement, a range of products including children's multivitamins, vitamin C and echinacea dissolve-in-the-mouth films will be manufactured by the Florida-based BioTec Films and distributed by AXM Pharma under both the Sunkist brand and AXM Pharma's house brands.
The deal is expected to add "at least $2 million (€1.6m) to our revenues during the initial two year period, with the majority of this flowing straight through to the bottom line," said Graham Hind, chief executive of BioProgress.
BioProgress already has agreements in place with US companies Wyeth, Perrigo, FMC BioPolymer, BMS ConvaTec and Colgate Palmolive. It also supplies its film strip technology to UK pharmacy Boots, considered the first to market with its vitamin C strips.
Dissolving strips make life easier for adults and children with an aversion to swallowing pills, who make up around 30-40 per cent of the US population, and add value to low cost vitamin products.
Since the technology was first used in Pfizer's Listerine PocketPaks three years ago, breath freshener strip sales have grown rapidly, reaching $200 million in the US in the first nine months of 2004 alone, and used in 128 different products in markets around the world, according to the market research firm Productscan Online.
The technology is rapidly being taken up by the pharmaceutical industry. Novartis recently expanded its Triaminic/Theraflu range of cold/flu products in a film strip format, and last year, US company Zengen launched a strip delivering benzocaine, a local anaesthetic, for the treatment of sore throat.
"BioProgress has the right technology at the right time, with pharmaceutical and dietary supplements industries under growing pressure worldwide to replace animal-derived materials - we are providing a fast, efficient and cost-effective alternative," added Hind.
The Nasdaq listing will further increase the company's visibility in the world's largest capital market. It also listed in the UK on the AIM (Alternative Investment Market) and claims to be AIM's most traded stock with an average daily volume of 2.9 million shares since the beginning of 2004.
