Chi-Med Expands Partnership W

RNS Number : 5846I

Hutchison China Meditech Limited

21 November 2008

 



Hutchison China MediTech Limited ('Chi-Med')

(AIM: HCM)

Chi-Med Expands Drug Discovery and Development Partnership With Lilly

London: Friday, 21 November 2008: Chi-Med, the pharmaceutical and healthcare Group, today announces that Hutchison MediPharma Limited ('Hutchison MediPharma'), its wholly-owned, Shanghai based drug R&D subsidiary, has entered into a new drug discovery and development agreement with Eli Lilly and Company ('Lilly') in respect of an additional target in oncology ('the 'Agreement').

This adds to the existing pharmaceutical agents focused on targets in oncology and inflammation being developed by the Hutchison MediPharma group for Lilly, in respect of which an announcement was made on 20 August 2007.  

Under the Agreement, Hutchison MediPharma will assume primary responsibility for the discovery phase activities necessary for the identification and selection of clinical candidates, and in return Hutchison MediPharma will receive from Lilly an up-front payment, as well as potential fees including: option fees, discovery and development milestone payments and royalties on worldwide sales of any products resulting from the collaboration. 

Dr. Samantha Du, Chief Scientific Officer for Chi-Med and CEO of Hutchison MediPharma, commented: 'Lilly is a global leader in oncology. We enjoy working together, and today's announcement demonstrates how productive our collaboration has been. We look forward to this expansion of our joint effort to develop innovative drugs for the global market.'

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Enquiries

Chi-Med   Christian Hogg, CEO	Telephone: [phone]
Citigate Dewe Rogerson   Anthony Carlisle   David Dible	Telephone: [phone] [phone] [phone]

Notes to Editors

About Chi-Med

Chi-Med is the holding company of a pharmaceutical and healthcare group based primarily in China and was admitted to trading on the Alternative Investment Market of the London Stock Exchange in May 2006. It is focused on researching, developing, manufacturing, and selling pharmaceuticals, health supplements and other consumer health and personal care products derived from Traditional Chinese Medicine and botanical ingredients. 

Hutchison MediPharma in Shanghai, is Chi-Med's wholly-owned drug R&D subsidiary and has at its disposal a team of around 200 scientists and staff focusing on discovery and development of botanical drugs, semi-synthetic natural product drugs, and synthetic single chemical entity drugs. Hutchison MediPharma currently has two candidates in clinical development in both the US and China. HMPL-002, a radiosensitiser for head and neck cancer and non-small cell lung cancer, is in Phase I/II studies in the US and in proof-of-concept in China. HMPL-004, an inhibitor to a group of inflammatory cytokines, has completed the Phase II proof-of-concept study in Ulcerative Colitis in China. It is currently in Phase II studies in Crohn's disease in the US and Phase IIb multicenter global studies in Ulcerative Colitis. Hutchison MediPharma also has a pipeline of single new chemical entity discovery projects in both the auto-immune/inflammatory disease and oncology therapeutic areas. 

Chi-Med is majority owned by Hutchison Whampoa Limited, an international company listed on the Main Board of The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

 

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