ScinoPharm Taiwan (台灣神隆), which makes active pharmaceutical ingredients (API), said yesterday that it had signed a contract to codevelop three drugs for treating glaucoma or thrombus formation with Hong Kong-based Lee’s Pharmaceutical Holding (李氏大藥廠).
The Taiwanese drugmaker agreed to supply API for Lee’s Pharmaceutical to make fondaparinux, an anticoagulant medication that is used to treat thrombus formation, vice president Portia Lin (林靜雯) said at an investors’ conference yesterday.
ScinoPharm will license the technology behind fondaparinux to Lee’s, allowing the Hong Kong firm to make the drug and conduct clinical trials in China, Lin said, adding that Lee’s will be responsible for selling the drug across the Taiwan Strait.
Lee’s Pharmaceutical said fondaparinux is expected to enter the Chinese market in 2018.
There is only one generic drug used in the same way in the Chinese market and it is made by India-based Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Inc, Lin said, adding that sales of it were 500 million yuan (US$80.29 million) last year.
“ScinoPharm Taiwan will enjoy a high profit share from the treatment because of the complexity of the ingredients and the technology transfer to Lee’s Pharmaceutical,” Lin said.
ScinoPharm also agreed to make the ingredients for travoprost and bimatoprost, which are used to treat glaucoma, for Lee’s, which will make the two drugs and acquire exclusive rights for future China sales.
The two drugs are expected to enter that market in 2019.
ScinoPharm said there are 9 million to 11 million people with glaucoma in China, and annual sales for drugs similar to travoprost and bimatoprost were about 400 million yuan in China in 2012.
Lee’s Pharmaceutical estimated that the market for glaucoma treatments would reach 5 billion yuan in 2018. The company reported HK$696.95 million (US$89.91 million) in revenue last year.
Last quarter, ScinoPharm reported a 53 percent profit decline to NT$165.35 million (US$5.49 million) or NT$0.24 per share, down from NT$350.12 million — or NT$0.54 per share — a year ago, it said.
The figure last quarter was also 37.53 percent lower than NT$264.7 million, or NT$0.39 per share, a quarter ago, it said.
The company’s gross margin last quarter was 40 percent, lower than 55 percent a year ago and 47.83 percent the previous quarter, it said.
Chief financial officer Patricia Chou (周珮芬) said the decline was because of the rising price of paclitaxel, which is used to make “10 dab,” an organic compound used to manufacture cancer chemotherapy treatments docetaxel anhydrous and paclitaxel. The substances are derived from Pacific yew trees.
Sales of ingredients for docetaxel anhydrous accounted for 10 to 15 percent of the company’s revenue of NT$5.09 billion last year, while sales of ingredients for paclitaxel accounted for 15 to 20 percent, Chou said.
ScinoPharm Taiwan has helped its suppliers secure new sources for trees to extract paclitaxel, it said, adding that it is also developing a new manufacturing process that allows it to use less “10 dab.”
The company booked depreciation costs of NT$120 million last quarter, Chou said, adding that it will book NT$500 million in depreciation costs in total this year, up from NT$400 million a year ago.
Despite the depreciation costs, gross margin will post sequential growth next quarter from this quarter, she said.
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