Lucrative Conference: Benda Recognizes $1.3 Million For Gendicine Order

SHANGAHI - Benda has recognized $1.3 million in revenues from an order worth $3.8 million placed at a recent conference for its cancer gene therapy Gendicine , the company announced Dec 5.

Approved to treat head and neck cancer in China in 2003, Gendicine is the world's first commercially licensed gene therapy medicine.

"We expect to fulfill additional orders amounting to $1.7 million in revenue by the end of December 2007, and the remaining US$ 0.8 million in orders at the beginning of 2008," said Wan Yiqing, Chairman and CEO of Benda, in a statement.

The orders were placed during China's national forum on "Gene Therapy for Tumors," held in September in Qing Dao, Shandong Province.

Roughly 600 doctors attended the Sibiono's forum, Benda's subsidiary and maker of Gendicine, and placed orders through their hospitals for an estimated 16,000 vials, worth $3.8 million. The order was nearly double Gendicine's sales figures for 2006, when only 8,825 vials were sold.

During the two-month period from Sept. 10 to Nov. 10, SiBiono produced 4,697 vials, 3,735 of which were immediately sold at a market price of $340 per vial to fulfill the initial $1.3 million in orders.

SiBiono expects to produce and sell another 5,000 vials by the end of this year, which should contribute $1.7 million in additional revenue.

The existing SiBiono plant has annual production capacity of 200,000 vials, which at 100 percent capacity can generate $68 million in revenue per year, acording to the company.

"We have in place the physical infrastructure to satisfy the recent dramatic increase in demand and much, much more," added Wan. "We have kept our professional staff intentionally lean to date, but with demonstrated demand, we are now responsibly growing our workforce in order to both fulfill orders and recognize revenue immediately."

However, SiBiono declined to give details about increase in manpower.

Last month Benda announced that a substantial improvement was seen in Gendicine's clinical trials in the India and they expect it to be approved for sale there by the end of 2008 (PharmAsia News, Nov.26, 2007).

- Dai Jialing ([email protected])