Benda Pharmaceutical, a China-based pharmaceutical company producing Gendicine, the world's first commercialized gene therapy medicine for the treatment of cancer, presented results of the clinical trials at 'Gene Therapy for Tumors' forum on September 9, 2007.
Benda Pharmaceutical received overwhelming response from physicians. The physicians immediately placed orders for 16,000 vials, effectively buying out all available product in just one day. When realized, these sales are expected to total $3.8 million. By way of comparison, sales of Gendicine through the entire first half of the year totaled $1.5 million.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg for Gendicine in the long term," said Benda Chairman and CEO Yiqing Wan. "The international medical community has eagerly awaited additional results on the efficacy of the drug, and these studies from 15 nationally renowned medical experts are more than promising – as indicated by purchase orders totaling 16,000 vials. To provide some context, this one-day number is nearly double the 8,285 vials sold in all of 2006. As such, we believe that our forum on Gene Therapy for Tumors could eventually prove the tipping point for Gendicine, SiBiono and publicly traded parent company Benda Pharmaceutical."
Prior to Benda's acquisition of SiBiono, the company suffered a net loss of $1.0 million in 2006. Following its acquisition of SiBiono, Benda dramatically enhanced the marketing and distribution of Gendicine and anticipates that SiBiono will earn $5.0 million in net income in 2007 – a 600 percent immediate improvement.
Sponsored by the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and the China Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Association, China's largest-ever annual medical biotechnology conference ran from September 7 – 10 in Qing Dao, Shandong Province. In conjunction with the national conference, Benda subsidiary SiBiono held a national forum discussing ‘Gene Therapy for Tumors’ on September 9, 2007. Approximately 600 leading Chinese doctors attended SiBiono's forum, representing 26 different provinces and over 200 Tier I Chinese hospitals (Tier I hospitals offer the best medical services in China; there are currently 775 Tier I hospitals in China). Most of the attendees had previously attended SiBiono-hosted gene therapy training sessions held during the 5 months prior.
At the forum, 15 nationally renowned medical experts shared their experiences in the effective application of Gendicine to maximize its treatment efficacy. Encouraged by the extraordinarily compelling clinical results (highlighted below) – and now knowledgeable about Gendicine's applications as a result of previous training – the 600 doctors present at SiBiono's forum placed orders through their hospitals, that once realized, are expected to total 16,000 Gendicine vials and $3.8 million. Limited only by the supply available, this combined order sold out all existing Gendicine stock. This seminal event marks SiBiono's emphatic grand entrance into China's $2.6 billion and the world's $28.2 billion anti-cancer drug market.