BioGaia (STO:BIOG-B) has signed an agreement with Beijing Keyuan Xinhai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd for the exclusive rights to sell BioGaia's ProTectis baby drops and ProTectis and Gastrus tablets through the retail pharmacy channel in China from 2013. The products will be sold under BioGaia's own brand.
Beijing Keyuan Xinhai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd (http://www.kyxh.com/en) was founded in 1995. It is a large pharmaceutical company with business in several areas, such as hospital drug supply and sales of medical appliances, consumables and pharmaceuticals. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Holding Co. Ltd.
Both the BioGaia ProTectis baby drops and the BioGaia ProTectis tablets contain BioGaia's patented and well researched probiotic strain Lactobacillus reuteri Protectis. Today BioGaia's finished products are available in around 60 countries. BioGaia Gastrus is a new product that is currently being investigated in patients with Helicobacter pylori infection.
China has a population of over 1.35 billion people. It is the world's second-largest economy by both nominal total GDP and purchasing power.
"Since last year we have been focusing on getting our products in to the BRIC markets and I am very happy to see that they now will be available in the largest of them all. China is of course a market with tremendous potential, but also with many challenges in terms of achieving sufficient distribution and penetration, but with Keyuan as our partner we are confident that we will be successful also in China in the long term", says Peter Rothschild, President of BioGaia.
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