Beike exits stem cell joint venture with SiriCell

Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology Co. Ltd. ("Beike") and SiriCell Technologies, Inc. ("SiriCell") announced that they are ending their partnership in "Beike Holdings Limited" ("Beike Holdings"), a joint venture formed by the two companies in 2008. Going forward, Beike will exit the joint venture, and all current and future Beike Holdings-initiated business activities will operate exclusively under the SiriCell brand. Beike Holdings was established to expand the availability of Beike's stem cell products outside of China through collaborative hospital partnerships and new international subsidiaries.

Beike Chief Executive Officer Dr. Sean Hu stated, "The decision to end the Beike Holdings joint-venture was a mutual and purely strategic one. While we continue to believe that making Beike's stem cell therapies more widely available through international partnerships makes sense, at this time it is more important for Beike to focus our efforts on our business inside of China. We have the greatest respect for our colleagues at SiriCell and we will continue to explore synergies between our two companies."

SiriCell will continue the efforts begun under Beike Holdings by actively pursuing a regional network of world-class cGMP stem cell manufacturing labs, distribution centers and storage banks to provide therapeutic cell products to hospital partners in Southeast Asia. Additionally, SiriCell plans to move forward with the multi-centered, adaptive Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials planned by Beike Holdings.

Beike will concentrate on growing its stem cell collection and storage capabilities, as well as providing its partner hospitals training and clinical advisory services for the treatment of International and domestic patients.

SiriCell Chief Executive Officer Alex Moffett commented, "By any measure, Beike Holdings was a successful collaboration. The company established itself in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines and is poised to open its first lab in Kuala Lumpur next month. It has several agreements in place with leading hospitals in each of those countries. However, it became clear that while SiriCell wanted to continue on our expansion path, our colleagues at Beike had turned their attention to a rapidly developing domestic market in China. Both Beike and SiriCell felt that now is the appropriate time to end this joint venture rather than to proceed with a strategic alliance that would become more difficult to unwind later."