SEOUL, KOREA AND BERKELEY, CA, April 14, 2003 – CJ Corp. and BioTime, Inc. (AMEX:BTX) announced today that they have entered into an Exclusive License Agreement under which BioTime granted to CJ an exclusive license to manufacture and sell BioTime's proprietary blood plasma volume expanders, Hextend® and PentaLyte® in the Republic of Korea for human therapeutic uses.
Hextend is BioTime's proprietary physiologically balanced blood plasma volume expander approved for use in the United States and Canada for treating the loss of blood volume during major surgery. PentaLyte is a pentastarch-based blood plasma volume expander similar in formulation to Hextend. PentaLyte is more quickly metabolized than Hextend, and is designed for use when short lasting volume expansion is desirable. BioTime has completed a Phase I clinical trial of PentaLyte in the United States.
Under the CJ Agreement, BioTime will receive a license fee, and a royalty on sales of the licensed products. CJ will be responsible for obtaining the regulatory approvals required to manufacture and market Hextend and PentaLyte, including conducting any clinical trials that may be required, and will bear all related costs and expenses. CJ has right of first refusal to acquire additional licenses to manufacture and sell BioTime's other blood replacement solutions for hypothermic surgery and organ preservation solutions in Korea.
The foregoing description of the CJ Agreement is a summary only and is qualified in all respects by reference to the full text of the CJ Agreement.
“We are very happy to license BioTime’s products which we believe to be the most advanced in this therapeutic class, and to collaborate with this promising company. We strongly believe that our pharmaceutical business as well as our pipeline of IV solutions will be strengthened by the addition of Hextend which is already being marketed by Abbott Laboratories Inc. in the US,” said Dr. Kil-Whan Chun, CEO of Pharma Division & R&D Centers at CJ Corp.
Mr. Dong-IL Lee, President of Pharma Division also said “We are very pleased to provide people with Hextend, a safer and more efficient blood volume expander, in Korea. In addition we are confident that Hextend, the plasma-like blood volume expander, can better protect the patient from the risk of bleeding in cardiac surgery and hyperchloremia which may result from the use of other blood volume expanders.”
"We are pleased to have our products marketed by CJ Corp. whose many resources will enable them to maximize sales of Hextend,” said Dr. Paul E. Segall, BioTime’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Hextend’s growing use and acceptance in leading hospitals throughout the United States, its selection as the plasma expander of choice for the pre-hospital treatment of battlefield injuries overseas by the United States Army Medical Department, its upcoming launch in Canada, combined with CJ's leadership in the Korean pharmaceutical market will facilitate Hextend’s emergence as its premium plasma expander.”
CJ Corp. which was established in 1953 has lead the Korean food industry with the first modern operations in Korea. Through the application of innovative bio-fermentation technology, the company is now a world leader in the production of pharmaceuticals, food and animal feed additives. CJ Group now pursues business growth through food and food service bioproducts and pharmaceuticals, media entertainment, and home shopping and logistics, etc. CJ conducts business in over 60 different countries through its thirty-two offices around the world. Lysine, MSG and nucleotides are the main export products of CJ. CJ Group, in addition to the above mentioned products, exports a wide variety of foods and pharmaceuticals, synthesized by its sophisticated bio-engineering technology. The pharmaceutical business of CJ Corp. was launched in 1984 with the hepatitis B vaccine and has aimed to provide cutting-edge products that improve people's health and their quality of life. The therapeutic field covered by CJ is antibiotics, metabolism and cardiovascular, vaccines and immunologicals, oncology, and I.V. solutions. CJ also plans to enter new fields such as those in the CNS, urology and respiratory categories. CJ uses its strong marketing capabilities to bolster the brand recognition of its medicines and the market dominance of its products. For more information about CJ Corp., please visit the company’s web site at www.cj.net and www.cjp.co.kr BioTime, headquartered in Berkeley, California develops blood plasma volume expanders, blood replacement solutions for hypothermic (low temperature) surgery, organ preservation solutions and technology for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment, and other applications. Information about BioTime can be found on the web at www.biotimeinc.com.
Dr. D. K. Kim, CEO of Global Damon Pharma (dkkim@gdp.co.kr) served as the consultant in this transaction. Global Damon Pharma is an established Korean pharmaceutical company with sales representatives covering both the ethical and over-the-counter markets. The company markets a wide range of products under distribution and marketing agreements with companies based all over the world. Some of the partners are: Amarillo Biosciences for natural oral interferon, Matritech for NMP 22, Cellegy for Retogesic, Devax for Y-Flex stent, Hayashibara for interferon injectable, Teraklin for artificial liver, MED EQ for Libido, Laphal for Ozothine and so on.
The matters discussed in this press release include forward-looking statements which are subject to various risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results anticipated. Such risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to the results of clinical trials of BioTime products; BioTime's ability to obtain United States Food and Drug Administration and foreign regulatory approval to market its products; competition from products manufactured and sold or being developed by other companies; the price of and demand for BioTime's products; BioTime's ability to negotiate favorable licensing or other manufacturing and marketing agreements for its products; and the availability of reimbursement for the cost of BioTime products (and related treatment) from government health administration authorities, private health coverage insurers and other organizations. These and other risk factors are discussed in BioTime's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.