The Straits Times / The Business Times News on AsiaPharm

AsiaPharm sees long-term Temasek tie-up

Collaboration with Temasek Life Sciences Lab for new medicines

ASIAPHARM Group says it will continue to work with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory - a Temasek Holdings-linked research institution - to develop new medicines, even though the investment company's 5 per cent stake in the China-based drug maker has recently been reduced.

Mr Liu: Focus now is to work with foreign drug companies on R&D

AsiaPharm chairman Liu Dianbo said yesterday the relationship with Temasek - which now holds 2.49 per cent of AsiaPharm - is 'a simple one'. Speaking in Mandarin, he said the company has worked with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory for a 'long time' and will continue to do so. The latter is a life sciences research institution set up in 2002 by Temasek in collaboration with National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University.

AsiaPharm's subsidiary Shandong Luye Pharmaceutical Company this month signed an agreement with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory to use the lab's zebrafish drug screening technology and Shandong Luye's compounds derived from traditional Chinese medicine to discover new drugs for the Chinese and international markets.

AsiaPharm has also been stepping up collaboration with foreign research companies. In six months it signed agreements with Switzerland's Sochinaz, Napo Pharmaceuticals of the US, Italy's Biomedica Foscama and India's Dr Reddy's Laboratories.

AsiaPharm is also working with the GEA-NUS Pharmaceutical Process Research Laboratory to jointly develop controlled-release pellets that reduce cholesterol. 'Our focus now is to work with foreign drug companies on research and development, to exchange knowledge and work together on new breakthroughs,' Mr Liu said. 'This is our first step to internationalisation.'

AsiaPharm has posted a 48 per cent rise in first-half net profit to 40 million yuan (S$8.2 million).