China Sky One Medical, a manufacturer, marketer and distributor of pharmaceutical, medicinal and diagnostic products in China, announced that it won the bidding process organized by the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology for a $1.5 million grant to further develop its six Early-Stage Cancer Diagnostic Kit project. These six products were created by First Bio-Engineering Company (First), its wholly-owned subsidiary. These products will enter into clinical trials in the first half of 2008.
China Sky One Medical will receive a total grant of $1.5 million over two years, 60 percent of which will be received in September 2007 and 40 percent of which will be received in the beginning of 2008. The grant will support its research and development efforts on the six products. The company will commence the clinical trial in the first half of 2008 to test sensitivity, specificity and accuracy of the products.
The six new products, upon commercial launch, will be used for the fast screening and supplementary clinical diagnosis for various cancers, including the Colloidal Gold Rapid Diagnosis Reagent Kit for each of lung, stomach, intestinal, liver, pancreatic and ovarian cancers.
The bidding process, initiated by the Ministry of Science and Technology of People's Republic of China (MOST) in early 2007, is to advance the country's competitiveness in developing world-standard technologies by providing project funding to the winning enterprises. This bidding process, only open to domestic enterprises, consists of multiple stages of assessment and elimination of projects at the provincial as well as the national level. Selection criteria are based on innovation and feasibility of the project.
Mr Yanqing Liu, Chief Executive Officer and President, China Sky One Medical said, "This project aims to develop cancer diagnosis techniques and provide them to domestic hospitals at an affordable cost. As the only winning healthcare enterprise in the Heilongjiang province, the recognition by MOST further solidifies our leading position in technology innovation at the local as well the national level."