17 February 2015, Melbourne, Australia: Australian biopharmaceutical company Immuron Limited (ASX: IMC), manufacturer of Travelan®, has entered into an agreement with Linker Holdings Limited, a Beijing company with offices in Hong Kong, for the sale of Travelan® in the Peoples’ Republic of China, Hong Kong and Macau.
Under the agreement, Linker has the exclusive rights to market, distribute and sell Travelan® as a functional food and a dietary supplement in its licensed territory and has undertaken to contractually comply with specified annual minimum purchase obligations.
Even Linker’s minimum purchase obligations represent a significant increase in the volume of the company’s Travelan business and will be measurable in multiples of the company’s current volumes. The Chinese market has the potential to eclipse the combined global sales of Travelan in all other regions. The scale of the opportunity is therefore considerable and consistent with any product marketed successfully in China, often being transformative for the originator company. The commencement of this increase in Travelan sales is expected to occur as soon as Linker attains regulatory approval from the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).
Linker is a product-driven company with a growing distribution and marketing network. It was founded by a number of experienced Chinese investors and has strong alliances with a number of logistics companies and companies that offer health services.
Linker’s Managing Director, Mr Joseph Xu said: “As China’s economy continues to grow and mature, there is an increasing demand for functional foods and wellness products such as Travelan®, especially in light of its gut and liver health benefits. We are very excited to have been afforded the opportunity to sell Immuron’s products in China and we look forward to a mutually beneficial working relationship with it.” Immuron’s Chairman, Dr Roger Aston said: “Travelan® is currently available in Australia and Canada. China represents a very large market opportunity for the expansion of our global Travelan® franchise.” “China is a large and increasingly wealthy market, in which gut and liver health are important concerns. Additionally, the South East Asian cultures’ pre-disposition to, and appreciation of, the benefits of colostrum strongly positions Travelan® in this market.”
“Linker has a team with a proven record of successfully commercialising a range of products, which gives us great confidence on the potential of Travelan® in the Chinese market and we expect that the strength of this market combined with minimum purchase order requirements will result in substantial growth in Immuron’s revenue over the coming 2-to-3 years,” said Dr Aston.
Contacts:
Amos Meltzer
Chief Executive Officer
+61 (0)437 587 680
Investor Relations
Amanda Loh, Buchan Consulting
+61 (0)3 9866 4722
Websites: www.immuron.com and www.travelan.com
About Immuron
Immuron is a biopharmaceutical company focused on oral immunotherapy treatments using dairy-derived antibody products for humans. Immuron’s technology platform products all have a very high safety profile. The company’s current products and product candidates address infectious diseases of the gastrointestinal tract as well as chronic diseases. Immuron has an on-market product, Travelan®, for preventing travellers’ diarrhoea. Immuron also has a phase 2 clinical product candidate for the treatment of inflamed fatty liver disease, known as Non-Alcoholic Steatohepatitis or NASH. Immuron’s main scientific alliances are with Hadassah Medical Center (Israel) and Monash University (Australia).
About Travelan®
Travelan® is clinically-proven to prevent with 90% efficacy the main cause of travellers’ diarrhoea. Travelan® is a natural product derived from bovine colostrum enriched with antibodies reactive to ETEC, the most common cause of travellers’ diarrhoea. In clinical trials, Travelan® showed efficacy of 90% in protecting against infection with the type of E.Coli that causes travellers’ diarrhoea. In addition, trials showed a significant reduction in abdominal cramps and stomach pain compared to those who did not receive Travelan®. Additionally, Travelan® is enriched with antibodies against lipopolysaccharides, which are bacteria-borne endotoxins that drive systemic chronic inflammation.
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