Distribution of company announcements to the professional platforms, finance portals and syndication of important corporate news to a wide variety of news aggregators and financial news systems.
Sydney, Oct 16, 2006 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Leading tissue and cord blood banking company CyGenics Ltd. (ASX: CYN)(PNK: CYGCF) and Indonesia's leading pharma company, PT Kalbe Farma Tbk, today officially launched their joint venture cord blood banking company, CordLife Indonesia.
The event was graced by the presence of Her Excellency, Minister of Health for Indonesia, Mrs Siti Fadillah Supari, and by Mr Ashok Mirpuri, the Singapore High Commissioner to Indonesia. Signing the agreement were Steven Fang, Group CEO CyGenics, and Mr Johanes Setijono, CEO Kalbe Farma.
The expansion of the Indonesian operations is in line with CyGenics' focus on revenue-generating cord blood banking services and the strengthening of its presence in all major markets in the Australasian region. CyGenics already has business activities in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, Thailand, and the Philippines, as well as Indonesia.
CordLife Indonesia has been in operation since December 2003. The cord blood units have been couriered to Singapore, for processing and storage at the company's AABB-accredited facility. The volume of business in Indonesia has grown to the extent that the operations now require a cord blood processing and storage facility in the country. The new facility is expected to be fully operational by early 2007, and the company intends to seek AABB accreditation for this facility.
CordLife Indonesia will launch expanded marketing and sales of cord blood banking business later this year, to educate the market on the importance of stem cells, and to bring quality cord blood banking services to the Indonesian people.
About Kalbe Farma
Kalbe Farma is the largest publicly-listed pharmaceutical company in Southeast Asia, with approximately US$1.5 billion market capitalisation and US$600 million in revenue (2005), marketing and selling its products in 6 major markets in Southeast Asia which in aggregate represent a population of almost 500 million. Kalbe Farma focus on three business segments: consumer health (47% of revenues); prescription pharmaceuticals (23% of revenues); and distribution and packaging (30% of revenues). They have over 12,000 employees, and a sales force of 6,000 covering 80% of the Indonesian consumer health and 100% of the Indonesian prescription pharmaceutical market. For further information, please visit www.kalbefarma.com.
About CordLife
CordLife is a regional cord blood bank that operates a state-of-the-art AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks) accredited facility in Singapore and a separate compliant facility in Hong Kong. The company currently has business activities in Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand. CordLife is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CyGenics. The first private cord blood bank to be set up in Singapore, and among the first in Asia, CordLife's start-of-the-art facility is the first in Southeast Asia to be accredited by AABB, and is the only bank to be so accredited in this region. These banking facilities comprise full processing and cryogenic storage capabilities. For further information, please visit www.cordlife.com.
