Novartis to acquire 85% stake in Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical for US$125 million

Nov 10 2009

Hard To Treat Diseases (HTDS.PK) www.htdsmedical.com, announced today that Novartis, a US$41 billion international healthcare company, is acquiring an 85% stake in HTDS' H1N1 Vaccine partner, Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., for US$125 million. Novartis of Switzerland will begin a five-year, $1 billion China initiative with two aims: the company will dramatically increase its investment in its China R&D facility, and it will seek to make China one its top three markets worldwide. The comments were made by Novartis' CEO, Daniel Vasella, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. http://www.chinabiotoday.com/articles/20091103_1

HTDS' Chinese subsidiary, Mellow Hope, is the exclusive agent of Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-pharmaceutical for International marketing and sales. Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-pharmaceutical has been granted a H1N1 license on September 24, 2009 by the Chinese government agency, SFDA.

Terry Yuan, HTDS' President/CEO said "We believe that when you start to appreciate what Novartis' commitment to our partner in China fully means, and the see the large financial commitment to our partner just for the China market, you can begin to appreciate the enormous value to HTDS of our exclusive international marketing and sales relationship with Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical. Further, the more you appreciate this value, the more you will find yourself understanding our value to them when they appointed us exclusive agent for international marketing and sales. As Mellow Hope owns all of registrations, clinical trials and brands for Zhejiang Tianyuan's international markets, the new Novartis-Zhejiang-Tianyuan entity will continue to leverage our assets and expertise in its international market. The Novartis purchase was announced by Novartis-Zhejiang-Tianyuan on November 4, 2009 (see link below)

Novartis reports that it has made the purchase of a majority interest in Zhejiang Tianyuan through proposed acquisition of a majority stake for US$125 million to expand its human vaccines presence in China. Zhejiang Tianyuan is a privately-held vaccines company providing a competitive product portfolio and pipeline in China, where Novartis has a limited vaccines presence. Tianyuan and Novartis are to collaborate on building a vaccines industry leader targeting unmet medical needs in China, the world's third-largest vaccines market. Acquisition of 85% stake in Tianyuan for approximately US$125 million will require Chinese regulatory and government approvals.

Tianyuan is a privately-owned vaccine company offering a range of marketed vaccine products in China and R&D projects focused on various preventable viral and bacterial diseases. Tianyuan has been delivering dynamic and profitable growth, having more than doubled its net sales to approximately US$25 million in 2008.