Yabao Pharmaceuticals and Frontage Laboratories Sign Collaboration for Pharmaceutical and Regulatory Development

(Exton, PA; January 25, 2011) Yabao Pharmaceuticals Group, Co., Ltd (Beijing, China) and Frontage Laboratories, Inc (Pennsylvania, USA) have signed a strategic collaboration agreement providing $50 million for pharmaceutical and regulatory development over a 5 year period. According to the agreement Frontage will develop sustained release technologies and provide supportive clinical research for Yabao, with the goal of developing more than 20 products for the US and EU pharmaceutical markets.

“The signing of the long term strategic collaboration agreement between Yabao and Frontage integrates the advantages of both companies, combining Yabao’s capacity of modern drug manufacturing with Frontage’s capabilities of formulation development and clinical trials and will mutually promote each other”, summarizes Mr. Ren Wuxian, Chairman of Yabao. Mr. Wuxian further elaborated: “The current leading sustained release control technologies have provided a broad prospect of modern drug development improvement and an increase of curative effect. We are pleased to collaborate with Frontage to advance research, drug production and marketing in this area. In conjunction with Chinese president Hu Jintao’s visit to the US, Yabao and Frontage have entered into this strategic collaboration agreement, which reflects the attention of both the US and Chinese governments to bilateral pharmaceutical technology cooperation, and indicates the bright vision of the bilateral development cooperation.”

This strategic collaboration agreement outlines the guidelines for research and development, international drug regulations and manufacturing of pharmaceutical products for global markets. This includes joint offices in both China and the US at Yabao and Frontage campuses, in order to strengthen the cooperation between their development and management teams. Both parties have indicated that they will build up solid long term collaboration and an easy-operating infrastructure project, in order to support cooperation on sustained release control product development, confirmation of drug development targets, lowering drug risk and improving drug safety.

At the signing ceremony Dr. Song Li, Chairman and CEO of Frontage, said: “In recent years the rapid development of Chinese pharmaceutical industry and formulation technology has created an environment of collaboration between pharmaceutical companies in the US and China. We hope that the cooperation between Yabao and Frontage will prove the value of sustained release control technologies in global medical and healthcare area by uniting our technology resources and advantages. This cooperation is an important milestone and a good example for US-China pharmaceutical companies.” Dr. Li also said: “Frontage’s research team and experts in formulation development, regulatory and clinical studies are looking forward to maintaining a long mutually beneficial relationship with Yabao.”

About Yabao:
Yabao Pharmaceutical Group is a leading specialty pharmaceutical company with fully integrated technology development, product development, manufacturing, and commercialization capabilities. As the first public corporation of the Shanxi pharmaceutical industry and in the first group of high-tech enterprises, Yabao has become a well-known trademark in China. Yabao has 5 branches and 13 subsidiaries, more than 6000 employees, a total asset of 2.4 billion, with annual revenue of 1.5 billion and a gross profit of 300 million, becoming one of the top 50 Chinese patent medicine companies. The modern traditional Chinese medicines are Yabao’s main products, and chemical medicine and biopharmaceuticals are its new products, alone with medicine materials and packing materials, focusing on formulation and API production with 300 products in 11 kinds of dosage forms, having strong brands at Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular disease medicine, Gynecological medicine, Pediatric medicine, and anti-cancer medicine.

Yabao has eight manufacturing bases with national GMP certification, strict quality control systems, advanced quality monitoring equipments, and quality control standards higher than the national legal standard. Yabao invested more than 500 million into Yabao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Beijing) and the sustained-release formulations production line in Fenglingdu Industrial Park, which was built according to US FDA and EU cGMP standards. These products will be sold to high-end market in EU and the US, with annual exports around 200 million.

With over 30 years of accumulated experience in drug manufacturing technology as well as advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing technologies, Yabao obtained extensive experience in dynamic exaction and characterization of CTM. Yabao has built up its professional sales teams and is building the biggest drug distribution center in Shanxi province. With first class personnel, abundant capital, and a strong drug development and marketing capacity, Yabao, as one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in China, has set globalization as its important developing strategy, and made significant progress in pharmaceutical research, manufacturing, and marketing during the period of ‘Eleventh Five Plan’.

About Frontage Laboratories:
Frontage Laboratories, Inc. is a dynamic contract research, development and manufacturing organization. Frontage offers a full range of pharmaceutical R&D services from their headquarters in Exton, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, and from a wholly owned division headquartered in Shanghai, China. Frontage has continually expanded operations each year, relocating its headquarters to the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2004 and adding four drug development facilities in the region and a clinical operation based in Hackensack, New Jersey. In recent years, Frontage has also expanded its business rapidly in China, including establishing its first subsidiary facility in Shanghai, China, (i.e. Frontage Laboratories (Shanghai) Co., Ltd) in 2006, a clinical research center in Zhengzhou in 2009, and is currently completing construction of a state-of-the-art drug development operation in Beijing.

By utilizing its experienced resources, advanced R&D technologies and facilities as core competencies, Frontage specializes at solving complex problems during drug development and providing an integrated solution required by leading pharmaceutical companies to move new drug candidates from preclinical research through end of Phase II, with further support provided to facilitate FDA approvals. In recent years, Frontage has cooperated with many Chinese pharmaceutical companies on advancing their API and generic drugs to meet FDA guidelines and to enter into the global market. Frontage (Shanghai) has also collaborated with many international and Chinese pharmaceutical companies in areas such as GLP and cGMP certification, IND and ANDA filings, NCE and generic drug development. Through its operation in China, Frontage (Shanghai) provides drug development services to Chinese pharmaceutical industry to file their pharmaceutical products in the US and Europe, and helps US pharmaceutical companies to bring their new products to the Chinese market through regulatory support services, manufacturing of clinical trial materials, and clinical development of candidates in Chinese patient populations.

As a rapidly expanding contract research organization in the US with a ten-year successful history of its high quality GXP services, Frontage has established an international standard in pharmaceutical product research, quality and management systems.

Contact Information

Ajay Sharma

VP of Business Development

Frontage Laboratories, Inc.

Contact via E-mail