HONG KONG, Oct., 30 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- ShangPharma Corporation (“ShangPharma” or the “Group”), a leading China-based pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development outsourcing company, today announced that leading global private investment firm TPG, through its TPG Growth Fund and TPG Biotech Fund (collectively known as “TPG”), has invested over US$30 million into the Group.
Headquartered in Shanghai, ShangPharma, through its subsidiaries (in particular Shanghai ChemPartner (“ChemPartner”) and Shanghai ChemExplorer (“ChemExplorer”), is a leading contract research provider in China of services in lead generation, lead optimization, synthetic chemistry, library design and production, process research, and pharmaceutical development with focuses on pre-formulation development and analytical service. Its customers are mostly international pharmaceutical, biotech, agrochemical and chemical companies, which include many of the top 10 pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the world. The Group is also a key outsourcing partner to the world’s largest innovation-driven pharmaceutical corporation.
Mr. Sing Wang, Partner and Managing Director of the TPG Growth Fund, and Mr. Geoff Duyk, M.D., D. Phil., Partner and Managing Director of the TPG Biotech Fund, joined ShangPharma’s board of directors.
“We are delighted to have TPG as our cornerstone investor,” said Mr. Michael Hui, CEO of ShangPharma. “Backed by TPG’s financial strength and industry expertise in the global biotechnology sector, this strategic alliance will be instrumental for the Group’s business expansion beyond chemistry outsourcing and in providing more integrated drug discovery and early development services. “
“With our base in Shanghai, home to one of the largest pools of professional talent and biotechnology expertise, we benefit from the cost and resource advantages that China’s pharmaceutical outsourcing industry offers. In addition to increasing our potential for entering the highly lucrative internal drug discovery and development program, this powerful competitive platform puts us in a strong position to broaden our offerings along the entire pharmaceutical value chain,” added Hui.
According to the latest market study, global R&D expenditures for both pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have grown from US$47.6 billion in 2004 to US$55.2 billion in 2006, a key factor behind the robust growth of the global drug discovery R&D outsourcing market. In addition, global R&D growth has made China a leading off-shore R&D destination, given its substantial talent pool, good infrastructure and strong government support, as well as increased investments by biopharmaceutical companies and a large domestic pharmaceutical market.
By leveraging the industry knowledge and investment experience of TPG, ShangPharma will expand its business lines geographically and transform the Group into a fully integrated Contract Research Organization (“CRO”) that includes biological services in the area of assay development and compound screening, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies. The company will also establish a cGMP manufacturing facility based upon US FDA criteria. Through TPG’s global platform, ShangPharma will also gain further marketing and sales opportunities globally and thus expand its customer base in the US, Europe and Japan.
Mr. Sing Wang, Partner and Managing Director of TPG Growth Fund, said, “We are confident that ShangPharma has significant organic business growth opportunities given its strong fundamentals. TPG’s investment expertise will be able to assist ShangPharma in its efforts to explore acquisitions and integration opportunities that will aid in the transformation of the Group’s business.”
Mr. Wang added that TPG will also play an active role in helping to strengthen ShangPharma’s professional team, enhance its corporate governance and expand its reach to potential customers.
Mr. Geoff Duyk, M.D., D. Phil., Partner and Managing Director of the TPG Biotech Fund, said, “TPG is excited about the unique opportunity to invest in this leading player in the pharmaceutical outsourcing sector of the PRC. Our biotech team possesses strong global industry knowledge and expertise that will benefit ShangPharma as it expands its business.” Mr. Duyk added that the Group would also gain operational and technical expertise from the synergies created with TPG’s portfolio companies in biotech, drug development and healthcare services.
About ShangPharma
ShangPharma is the holding company of Shanghai ChemPartner Co., Ltd. and Shanghai ChemExplorer Company Ltd. With ChemPartner as its flagship company, ShangPharma is a leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development outsourcing company that provides customized services to international pharmaceutical, biotech, agrochemical and chemical companies. ShangPharma offers global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies “integrated service” for all of their Research and Development needs. ShangPharma currently has a team of more than 1,100 professionals, and more than 40% of the employees have post-graduate educational experience of Master or Ph.D. degrees. The Group’s leadership team has professional and educational background from all over the world, either with extensive overseas R&D experience in pharmaceutical or biotech companies and universities or trained at top chemistry research institutes in China before joining ShangPharma. More information is available at http://www.ShangPharma.com .
About TPG
TPG is a private investment partnership that was founded in 1992 and currently has more than $35 billion of assets under management. Through its investment platforms, TPG Capital and TPG Growth, the firm has extensive experience with global public and private investments executed through leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, joint ventures, growth investments and restructurings. TPG is also associated with TPG Axon Capital and TPG Credit Management. The firm is headquartered in Fort Worth, and has offices in San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, New York, Minneapolis, Melbourne, Menlo Park, Moscow, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.
shari.lai@hillandknowlton.com.hkrachel.chan@hillandknowlton.com.hk
CONTACT: Shari Lai, +852-2894-6251, shari.lai@hillandknowlton.com.hk;
Rachel Chan, +852-2894-6309, rachel.chan@hillandknowlton.com.hk
Web site: http://www.ShangPharma.com/
